Jupiter, Saturn, The Moon, Mars, Venus, Coffee and Vanilla Creamer - 3:33 am 10 July 2020 Friday Morn

3:33 am Friday morn, 10 July 2020

I opened the front door and stepped onto the front porch while holding the door jam and placing my rollerblade on the deck.  Over my shoulder, past the street light, next to the column of the front porch roof I saw a bright 'star' in the sky to the southeast.

"Jupiter!" I said aloud.  I knew I was right.  As I went down the stairs and skated across the sidewalk onto the street I saw Jupiter and another fainter 'star' to the left.

"Saturn," I predicted confidently.

As I skated down the middle of the street I could see the half Moon directly south; to the left of the Moon was a small reddish 'star.'

"Mars!" I exclaimed.  I knew I was right.  What other red stars have I seen?

I turned around and skated north on the street to the corner.  I looked down the cross street towards the one hundred year old Italianate church tower.  Due east I saw a very bright 'star.'

"Venus," I thought to myself as I straddled the double yellow line on the street.  No cars on the road at 3:33 am or so.

I skated up and down the street under the harsh illumination of the numerous street lights.  It is hard to see the naked stars when the city is lighting the streets when it gets dark.  To what end?  Can't people learn to see in the dark?

I love skating in the dark of night.

Coffee and vanilla creamer called to me and I went back inside to my kitchen and smelled the coffee.

https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/usa/boston

Through internet verification I found that I was right in the planetary identification of four 'star' like objects in the sky.




 

Thirty years ago I might have been able to verify my identifications with a Farmers Almanac, or some other book of star charts and the night sky for New England.  I was interested in astronomy back then.  I watched and re-watched Carl Sagan's television series 'Cosmos.'  But aside from the Big Dipper and Small Dipper and Orion and his easy to spot belt in the winter sky I hardly ever knew what I was looking at.  Perhaps Venus was so bright that I knew the planet for what it was.  Sometimes Mars was so red, and so close to the Earth, that it was main stream news.  But, otherwise I was left to explore Mars and Venus with H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.

I went to the star maps on the web site TimeAndDate    https://www.timeanddate.com/ -
More specifically TimeAndDate Astronomy Night - Boston -  https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/usa/boston

See Also:Vatican launches astronomy class for parish educators
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-launches-astronomy-class-for-parish-educators