1 00:00:20,186 --> 00:00:24,157 JAMES: Welcome to Star Gazers. 2 00:00:24,257 --> 00:00:27,761 I'm James Albury, director of the Kika Silva Pla Planetarium in Gainesville, Florida. 3 00:00:27,861 --> 00:00:30,530 DEAN: And I'm Dean Regas, astronomer from the Cincinnati 4 00:00:30,630 --> 00:00:34,467 Observatory, and we're here to help you find you way around the sky. 5 00:00:34,567 --> 00:00:39,506 Now I m not a morning person, but I'm gonna set my alarm this week to wake up before dawn. 6 00:00:39,606 --> 00:00:40,507 JAMES: Really?! 7 00:00:40,607 --> 00:00:41,775 DEAN: Yep. 8 00:00:41,875 --> 00:00:43,576 I can t believe I m saying this but I m going to get up 9 00:00:43,676 --> 00:00:48,681 and drag myself out of bed at, (gulp), 5 o clock in the morning to star gaze or should 10 00:00:48,782 --> 00:00:49,816 I say planet-gaze. 11 00:00:49,916 --> 00:00:52,218 JAMES: Wow, this is serious. 12 00:00:52,318 --> 00:00:54,154 And with good reason. 13 00:00:54,254 --> 00:00:58,758 As a morning person myself, I ve been noticing three planets in the sky before the Sun rises: 14 00:00:58,858 --> 00:01:00,727 Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. 15 00:01:00,827 --> 00:01:04,330 DEAN: And to add some extra flavor to the astronomer-grade 16 00:01:04,431 --> 00:01:09,002 coffee I ll need to drink to wake up that early, the Moon will be passing through. 17 00:01:09,102 --> 00:01:10,603 JAMES: Perfect! 18 00:01:10,703 --> 00:01:13,106 Since it s not a workday, you can go back to sleep after you see it all. 19 00:01:13,206 --> 00:01:14,574 DEAN: My thoughts exactly. 20 00:01:14,674 --> 00:01:16,910 Let s head to the morning sky! 21 00:01:17,010 --> 00:01:20,213 DEAN: Okay we have our sky set up for Monday March 22 00:01:20,313 --> 00:01:21,981 5th at 5 AM, facing southeast. 23 00:01:22,082 --> 00:01:27,120 It s dark, it s clear, it may be cold, but what a view! 24 00:01:27,220 --> 00:01:29,823 JAMES: Among the stars, you can find three planets 25 00:01:29,923 --> 00:01:31,758 among the constellations. 26 00:01:31,858 --> 00:01:33,593 And they re all lined up. 27 00:01:33,693 --> 00:01:37,831 Jupiter is about halfway up in the southern sky and is the easiest to find since it is 28 00:01:37,931 --> 00:01:38,832 the brightest. 29 00:01:38,932 --> 00:01:40,400 DEAN: That s an understatement. 30 00:01:40,500 --> 00:01:43,269 Jupiter is significantly brighter than any star at this time of night 31 00:01:43,369 --> 00:01:45,205 er, morning. 32 00:01:45,305 --> 00:01:47,040 It is suspiciously bright. 33 00:01:47,140 --> 00:01:49,175 JAMES: If you have a really good imagination you 34 00:01:49,275 --> 00:01:53,780 might be able to imagine Jupiter up and to the right of Scorpius the Scorpion. 35 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:58,718 Scorpius is usually a summer constellation but one of the joys of waking up early, Dean, 36 00:01:58,818 --> 00:02:00,820 is that you get a preview of the stars. 37 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:02,655 DEAN: That s right, James. 38 00:02:02,755 --> 00:02:06,826 And, just to the left of Scorpius we come to our next planet and it should shine with 39 00:02:06,926 --> 00:02:08,361 a steady reddish glow. 40 00:02:08,461 --> 00:02:10,096 That is Mars. 41 00:02:10,196 --> 00:02:13,566 Now you may notice another red star in the vicinity. 42 00:02:13,666 --> 00:02:16,336 Back in Scorpius you can find Antares. 43 00:02:16,436 --> 00:02:22,242 Antares may look a little like Mars, but man-o-man, there are some big differences! 44 00:02:22,342 --> 00:02:27,447 JAMES: First off, notice the name of this star: Ant-ares. 45 00:02:27,547 --> 00:02:31,518 Ares was the Greek god of war and the equivalent of the Roman god Mars. 46 00:02:31,618 --> 00:02:34,454 So Ant-ares is like the Anti-Mars. 47 00:02:34,554 --> 00:02:36,256 They re both the same color. 48 00:02:36,356 --> 00:02:39,092 DEAN: But that is where the similarities end. 49 00:02:39,192 --> 00:02:45,098 Mars is a planet about 4200 miles wide and is about 125 million miles away. 50 00:02:45,198 --> 00:02:48,134 Those sound like impressive numbers but 51 00:02:48,234 --> 00:02:51,804 JAMES: Antares is a red supergiant star almost 600 52 00:02:51,905 --> 00:02:56,142 million miles in diameter and about 600 light years from Earth. 53 00:02:56,242 --> 00:03:00,046 That s the equivalent of 3.5 quadrillion miles away. 54 00:03:00,146 --> 00:03:01,915 DEAN: Whoa! 55 00:03:02,015 --> 00:03:06,619 If we place Mars and Antares at the same distance from us, this is what they d look like. 56 00:03:06,719 --> 00:03:09,289 Uh, can you even see Mars? 57 00:03:09,389 --> 00:03:12,592 JAMES: That leaves one more planet to find and Jupiter 58 00:03:12,692 --> 00:03:14,460 and Mars can help. 59 00:03:14,561 --> 00:03:17,564 Connect a line from Jupiter through Mars and keep going. 60 00:03:17,664 --> 00:03:23,203 You will run into another pretty bright star that should be a little yellow in color. 61 00:03:23,303 --> 00:03:25,071 That is actually the ringed planet Saturn. 62 00:03:25,171 --> 00:03:27,373 DEAN: Ah, my favorite! 63 00:03:27,473 --> 00:03:32,645 Saturn is about one billion miles away but is so big and reflective that it still shines 64 00:03:32,745 --> 00:03:34,380 brightly in the morning skies. 65 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:37,016 JAMES: And here s where it gets even better. 66 00:03:37,116 --> 00:03:41,321 If we advance our time to Wednesday March 7th, look what joins the planet line-up 67 00:03:41,421 --> 00:03:42,322 DEAN: The Moon! 68 00:03:42,422 --> 00:03:45,158 It ll be right next to Jupiter. 69 00:03:45,258 --> 00:03:50,396 And then as the week progresses, on the 8th and 9th, the Moon will get closer and closer 70 00:03:50,496 --> 00:03:51,965 to Mars. 71 00:03:52,065 --> 00:03:56,102 And on Saturday morning March 10th it will lie between Mars and Saturn. 72 00:03:56,202 --> 00:03:58,871 JAMES: And to round out next week, Sunday morning 73 00:03:58,972 --> 00:04:02,041 March 11th the Moon will be just to the left of Saturn. 74 00:04:02,141 --> 00:04:04,510 JAMES: Wow, what a week to get up early. 75 00:04:04,611 --> 00:04:07,880 DEAN: I love seeing the planets even if it is 5 76 00:04:07,981 --> 00:04:09,716 AM. 77 00:04:09,816 --> 00:04:13,419 And you ll see Jupiter in the south, Mars and Saturn in the southeast and don t forget 78 00:04:13,519 --> 00:04:16,689 the Moon passing through from March 7th to March 11th. 79 00:04:16,789 --> 00:04:19,792 JAMES: And if you can, take a look at all four objects 80 00:04:19,892 --> 00:04:21,427 through a telescope. 81 00:04:21,527 --> 00:04:24,597 The craters of the Moon look totally awesome through even a simple telescope. 82 00:04:24,697 --> 00:04:27,100 DEAN: And with Jupiter you can see stripes on the 83 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:29,402 planet and four moons. 84 00:04:29,502 --> 00:04:34,007 Some tiny features on Mars, and the breathtakingly beautiful rings of Saturn. 85 00:04:34,107 --> 00:04:35,608 It s all there when you 86 00:04:35,708 --> 00:04:39,708 BOTH: Keep looking up!