head-to-head planet to planet the star
gazers I'm james oberg director the kike
Silverpop planetarium in Gainesville
Florida and I'm Dean Regas astronomer
for the Cincinnati Observatory we're
here to help you find your way around
the sky as we roll into June two planets
shine bright and as he does every june
the mighty Hercules flexes muscles and
the eastern sky he's strong brave enough
but how do I put this delicately he's
not very bright
exactly and his dim stars make him hard
to find
luckily hercules is also hard-headed
because when we show you how to find it
we'll see that he goes head-to-head with
another large constellation let's show
you ok sky set for any night this week
at around 10:30 p.m. facing southeast
that's where you can find two planets
just after sunset they look like very
bright stars but are much much different
which planets are these well let me give
you some clues the brighter of the two
and the one up and to the right is also
known as the red planet it's the fourth
planet from the Sun and it's the place
to look firm martians its mars what gave
it away a good guesser and I was going
to say that Mars usually appears rather
than the other stars but this spring
well that isn't the case lower in the
southeast you'll spy a very red twinkly
star called and terrorists this marks
the beating heart of the constellation
Scorpius the Scorpion mars an entire
should be similar in color after all the
Greek name from mars with Aries and
Antares means rival of mars other planet
is that yellow star-like object to the
left
I don't need to give you any verbal
clues for this 1 I'll just show you read
it looks like in a telescope and you'll
saying my favorite planet Saturn be
closest to Earth this week so definitely
check it out
now we're facing east southeast at 10:30
p.m. and we're looking for a
muscle-bound hero right over here Dean
that is true you've got the muscles but
you're definitely too bright indeed and
hercules is tough to find even for me I
first look for the bright blue star Vega
that lets me know I'm in the area above
Vegas is a four sided figure of stars
called the Keystone that is hercules is
body to picture the rest of his body
takes a lot of imagination so let's
throw the picture of them up there
yep he's upside down he's actually doing
some acrobatics with another
constellation Ophiuchus he's just as
tough to picture in the stars but Greek
legend says he's holding a snake as well
can you see that
hercules is no fix our head to head in
the sky and the names of their stars
attest to that
hercules is head Start is named Russell
get and it means head of the kneeler its
dimmer than the North Star but you may
detect a slightly reddish tint to it
that's because Russell Gaffey is a red
giant star but 360 light years away from
us a few cases had stars called rossoll
Hague and means head of the serpent pair
of u-kiss may look like he is being
strangled by the snake but he's actually
showing it off Greek myths say that he
learned to bring the dead back to life
thanks to the help of the snake you know
the symbol on ambulances of the snake
coiled around a staff that comes from
this ledge
after sunset this week look for the two
planets in the southeastern sky Mars and
Saturn will be hanging out near the
constellation Scorpius and its red heart
star Antares then see the two giant
constellations going head-to-head in the
east southeast Hercules and Ophiuchus
and behold airhead stars Russell and
Russell hey hey James have you ever
wanted to be a constellation all the
time should we posed I don't have a
snake but I have been the stargazers
graphics can fix that for stargazers I'm
James Hercules all dairy and I'm Dean
Ophiuchus Regus
they found a snake for me hoping you
keep looking up