Skywatch January & February 2012
Four planets are visible in the night sky early 2012: Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. Once the beautiful Virgin Island sun has set, the first star-like object to appear in the western sky will be the planet Venus. Venus is the third brightest natural object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. Venus (and all the planets) does not shine by its own light. Light from the Sun bounces off the clouds covering Venus and thus Venus appears so bright. This light passes through the air around the Earth, the air causes the reflected white sunlight light to break up (like a prism) and we see Venus appear to twinkle in white, red and blue.
As the sky grows darker Jupiter will appear also as a bright star-like object, higher in the western sky. Between Jupiter and Venus are the faint stars of the constellation of Pisces, the Fish. It is almost impossible to find two fish with a string tied to their tails in this part of the sky. If it is clear and dark enough, you may see a circle of faint stars just above Venus; this circle is one of the two fish. Jupiter is currently seen against the background of stars of another constellation made of faint stars, Aries, the Ram. According to some legends, Aries is the ram into which Zeus changed himself to escape the giants. Pisces and Aries are two of the twelve constellations which form the zodiac. The zodiac is a band of constellations which encircles the sky and it is to the zodiac that we must look to find the planets.
