How do you identify or locate planets by the naked eye or binoculars?

Answer 1

Get a star chart for the month. Try Astronomy magazine. Depending on their orbital position, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are the most easily observed planets. Mercury and Saturn are occasionally visible, but for the outermost planets, you'll need a telescope.

Answer 2

Lots of people have suggested software or web sites which show the current location of planets, but I don't think that's what you're asking. I think you're asking how you identify them _without_ a chart, just using naked eye or binoculars.

There are several clues. The best known one is that stars twinkle but planets don't, and that's true much of the time, except when the atmosphere is really steady (nothing twinkles) or turbulent (everything twinkles). Secondly, with binoculars you can usually see that a planet is a very tiny disk, rather than a point of light, even if you can't see enough to say it has rings (Saturn) or a crescent shape (Venus). With Jupiter, you can almost always see one or more tiny moons close by. Plus, most of the time the planets are the brightest objects in the sky, brighter even than Sirius, the brightest star. Finally, there is knowing your basic constellations, so that you will know which points of light don't "belong".

On my first few nights studying the stars fifty years ago, I had no computer software (obviously) and no current chart. From my charts of constellations, I was able to identify two bright points that didn't fit, so concluded correctly that they were planets. With a little bit more research (tables of opposition of planets in a book) I was able to figure out that they were Jupiter and Saturn.

Answer 3

Agree with the folks who say stars scintillate (Twinkle), planets usually don't. The reason for that is that all the stars except our sun are so darn far away, they must be considered as point light sources. Thus, there is really only one path from a point source to your eye. Any atmospheric disturbance can affect this narrow stream of photons.

Planets, on the other hand, have physical size in the sky, so there are multiple paths for light to your eye (Light can come from the top, bottom, middle etc.). If one gets disturbed, there are plenty more that may not.

Finally, learn about the ecliptic, the sun's apparent path thru the sky. All the visible planets always appear near this line, and often just knowing where it is can help decide which is which. Objects far from the ecliptic cannot be planets.

Download this piece of freeware, Homeplanet:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/homeplanet/homeplanet.html

Answer 4

a minimum of 0.5 the planets could be seen bare eye. All stars twinkle. Planets do no longer twinkle. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter because of the fact the Earth you're status on can all be found via the amateur. it quite is six of the 8.5 planets. Which telescope relies upon extremely on affordability. universal reflector or a refractor of a minimum of four" or yet an determination determination is the dobsonian favoured via some for ease of use. everywhere from 4" to ten" for newbie. additionally high quality is considerable, alongside with the universal of the lenses you purchase. Or besides the fact that purchase a competent pair of binoculars and get to be attentive to the sky that way. lots of books for novices.

Answer 5

Study, study, study.

Star charts. Memorize the priciple magnitude stars in the common constellations.

Study some more. Know the planetary ecliptic plane. All eight planets fall into this viewing "band" across the sky at different times.

If you really want to get good, subscribe to "Sky & Telescope" for scheduled events and other websites which will give you viewing dates and times for the International Space Station. There are also common oddities like the brief appearance of polar orbiting satellites coming out of the night shadow of Earth and into the glare of the Sun.

Good times.

Answer 6

Planets orbit the sun in a plane that is a close match to that of earth, so look in that area of the sky that the sun traces out in it's daily trek across the sky. Jupiter will be the largest red thing in the sky, Mars will be reddish but more difficult to locate, Venus will be easy to find it is very bright, Saturn can be found and with good binoculars you will be able to see it's rings, Mercury is very difficult to find because it is so close to the sun.

Answer 7

This website is *free and online*. It will show you where the planets are for any date / time / location you want ==>http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/

It would help you find the naked-eye planets if you could learn about what's called the plane of the ecliptic. This is the path across the sky that all planets follow.

Answer 8

you should email who helped me ! !!
she is an astronomer & she helps people with this all the time. She is a great one for helping with this!
email her right away!!

I can't believe what a great teacher she is when you ask for help finding stuff ! I found the great hercules cluster last night with my binoculars!!
awesome sight ! and she showed me how to find any planet!!

Her name is Starr .

Her email
[e-mail]

her website
http://asktheastronomer.blogspot.com

Answer 9

A really good program is Cybersky. You can download it for a free 30-day trial; the full version is $32.95. I've been using it for years, and I REALLY like it :-)

Also, try looking at Jack Horkheimer's site (below); he's a fantastic teacher.

Answer 10

Programs and star charts are fine, but you should be able to recognize the major planets w/o them. But you do need to be able to recognize which constellations are in the zodiac to do this.