What's Up - September 2007
The following is a transcript (please see the video here):
It's the 30th anniversary of the Voyager Mission.
Voyager flew by and studied Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
And guess what?
All four of these planets can be seen in the night sky this month.
Hello and welcome. I'm Jane Houston Jones at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Jupiter is easiest of the four planets to see.
Just step outside after dinnertime and look in the southwest sky. That bright thing you see is Jupiter.
Now, turn yourself around.
That's where you'll find both Uranus and Neptune. You really won't be able to see Uranus and Neptune without a little help.
Uranus will require some binoculars for Uranus and Neptune will definitely require a telescope.
But boy, it's really worth it to see these two. The gorgeous blue color will just knock your socks off.
There's one more planet you can see this month. It's Saturn, lord of the rings.
And this one is just perfect for you early risers.
Just step outside about an hour before sunrise and look in the eastern sky.
??That golden glow you see is Saturn.
It took Voyager two spacecraft ??and a dozen years to see these four planets, and guess what?
You've just seen them in one night.
The two Voyager spacecraft are still healthy and are sending back data from the far reaches of our solar system.
You can learn about all of NASA's missions at www.nasa.gov.
For this month's star charts, visit education.jpl.nasa.gov and click on the What's Up button.
That's all for this month. I'm Jane Houston Jones.
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