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‘Elusive planet’ can be viewed clearly from Earth with the naked eye By Randy A. Salas
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT) Have you seen Mercury lately? It's right there, clear as night, in the predawn sky. We're in the middle of a roughly three-week span in which the "elusive planet" can be viewed clearly from Earth with the naked eye -- something that's usually difficult to do because of Mercury's proximity to the sun in our sky. Let's take a look online.www.space.comSpace.com's Joe Rao, an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium, offers an excellent guide to spotting Mercury, one of the brightest objects in the night sky. (Use www.startribune.com/a2001 to go straight to his write-up.) "Mercury should ... be relatively easy to find, low in the east-southeast sky about 45 minutes to an hour before sunrise," he says. His guide includes an illustration showing where to look for Mercury in relation to the horizon, as well as links to learn more about our first planet. The view gets better soon, too: Mars and Jupiter are joining Mercury in the predawn sky, culminating in the most compelling sight on Dec. 10, when they will be unusually close to one another from our perspective. Space.com says it will post a guide to viewing the planetary trio today.messenger.jhuapl.eduIt's 1.4 billion miles and counting for MESSENGER -- or MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, Geochemistry and Ranging spacecraft. NASA's unmanned mission to conduct the first orbital study of Mercury started on Aug. 3, 2004, and will begin orbiting the innermost planet on March 18, 2011. The space agency's fantastic website for the project has countdown clocks for it all, including MESSENGER'S closest fly-by of Venus on June 5. "Understanding this 'end member' among the terrestrial planets is crucial to developing a better understanding of how our own Earth formed, how it evolved, and how it interacts with the Sun," the site explains about why NASA is going to Mercury. The site is filled with information about the planet, as well as activities for students and teachers.www.shatters.net/celestiaYou don't need to wait for MESSENGER's 2011 arrival to see Mercury up close. Go there now using "Celestia," a captivating -- and free -- computer program developed by Minnesotan Chris Laurels that offers vivid views of the solar system and beyond. Download "Celestia" at his site, and then head over to the Celestia Motherlode (www.celestiamotherlode.net) to get free add-ons that make the most of the software. Among them is Bob Hegwood's nifty "Tour of Mercury" (download it using www.startribune.com/a2002), which explores the planet using the path of and images from the Mariner 10 spacecraft, which mapped about 45 percent of Mercury's surface during three fly-bys in the mid-'70s. The read-me file in his add-on explains how to configure "Celestia" to use it.www.hyperion-records.co.uk/details/67270.aspOutside of television and cinema, few artistic works have glorified our solar system as magnificently as Gustav Holst's seminal orchestral work "The Planets." Listen to a performance of the four-minute third movement, "Mercury" -- with Colin Matthews conducting the Hallé Orchestra -- at the British classical label Hyperion's website. (Scroll down to find the link for the Real Audio file on the left side of the page.) That movement is particularly fitting at this time of year, because the melodies and instrumentation recall traditional Christmas music. If you want to download a truly great performance of the work at iTunes (www.itunes.com) or buy one in stores, look for versions conducted by Adrian Boult, William Steinberg, John Eliot Gardiner or, arguably the best, Charles Dutoit.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_craters_on_MercuryWikipedia's listing of the more than 200 named craters on Mercury notes that they all have been labeled after famous artists and writers, including composers Beethoven, Bach and Wagner. Sadly, none is named after Holst. Maybe that will change when MESSENGER maps the remaining 55 percent of the planet starting in 2011. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Randy A. Salas is a columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Do you have a favorite Web site or a question about how to find something on the Internet? Send a note by clicking here.
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