Insert Uranus Joke Here

Tonight was a perfectly clear evening and, even though there was a near full moon, the heavens were in full display. You could see four of the five planets visible from earth (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn) as well as various stars and constellations (e.g., the Big Dipper, Vega, Alpha Centauri) with the naked eye.

Because the sky was so clear, Laurence brought out his high-powered telescope and gave a little tour of the heavens. We saw Saturn's rings through the telescope. The rings and their planetary shadow were so clear that it looked like someone had stuck a decal of Saturn on the lens of the telescope!

We saw Jupiter and its four largest moons (the "Galilean moons") -- Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede -- as well as a faint band of red clouds (though not the Great Red Spot).


We saw the double star (Mizar and Alcor) that forms one part of the Big Dipper. And we saw the brilliant moon and its various seas and splashes (the striations extending outward from some of the craters).

In addition to Laurence's expert guidance, one of the avid stargazers brought a GPS-assisted device that, by simply pointing it at a celestial body, would automatically identity the object and offer a detailed description of the object. It was like being on one of those audio museum tours, except on a grander scale that included every visible object in the heavens! Such a clever invention. And how nice that the astro-commentator sounded like the GPS device in my buddy's Acura.

[For more information on some of the celestial bodies, follow the attached "winks" (Wikipedia links).]