The moon is dangling beneath an absolutely brilliant star tonight--not a star, actually, but Jupiter. According to the Old Farmer's Almanac for Kids, Venus will approach Jupiter, eventually floating below it on the 29th and 30th. On the last day of the month, the crescent Moon will hang below both of them in the twilight.
Getting up early? Mercury is low in the east just before dawn (my house is surrounded by hills, so I won't be seeing it). At mid month, look for Saturn in the southeast, reaching halfway to the zenith at dawn.
Too easy star craft: go outside in the early evening and look for the moon and Jupiter (hard to miss this month). Before everybody gets cold, go back inside and color the night sky on black construction paper, using pastels (or chalk). The buttery yellow color works great. More advanced star-gazers can look for Orion or make up their own constellations.
The Cassini-Huygens Saturn Mission website features an entire section aimed at kids (although pictures of Saturn in a bath tub are hard to explain to a planet-crazed three-year-old).
The SUCO observatory's Fall 2008 Public Observing Series continues Wednesday, November 5, beginning with a film at 8:00 p.m. Observatory at the college camp info
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