The planets are aligned.........

Every few years there's an alignment of the naked-eye planets, whereby you get to see all of them at the same time (if you know where to look). There are of course six of them, when you include the one beneath your feet.

Mercury was an easy evening object a few weeks ago, but it's done its dash again now. The others are all still out and proud.

For a while I've been seeking an ideal observing location within Sydney. You won't get anything like a perfect dark sky without travelling hundreds of kilometres, but some metropolitan areas should be more suitable than others. And I hit on Terry Hills the other night as a good option to try out.

Right & below: The galactic centre is right overhead, with the dark 'Emu in the Sky' stretching horizontally from near the Cross in the south.









Right & below: Looking more or less straight up here. A very red Mars, Saturn, and always-bright Jupiter are in a line. Brilliant Venus set in the west a while ago.

Cromer Heights delights

'Cromer Heights delights' was the name aptly chosen by one of my bushwalking companions recently for her outing to the Northern Beaches bushland  inland from Dee Why, Collaroy, and Narrabeen.

I'd never explored this area properly before, so I was suitably delighted.

There was a large coloured rock platform, providing some rather convincing aerial views of the surface of Mars.

And another rock platform with aboriginal carvings, like this ancestral being one, I think.

We started our walk at Dee Why, and finished at Narrabeen, with the last section being along the recently renovated Narrabeen Lagoon circumnavigation track.



A fine day out, as ever.

Last chance to see.....

..... the six naked eye planets.

Every few years the five naked-eye planets align themselves such that you can see them all in the sky at the same time. Right now is just such a time, and there's a few more days of this before the most timid of them - Mercury

- drops back out of sight below the pre-dawn horizon. I recommend 5:00am to 5:20am in Sydney latitudes.



So get up early, get out there, and enjoy the spectacle.


In the eastern sky, from bottom to top, there's Mercury and Venus, close together, then there's Saturn, and pretty high up there's Mars. Venus is the brightest thing in the sky, and Mars is one of the reddest. Scorpius, the curly-tailed scorpion, helps you locate them all.

Over in the north-west is the second brightest planet in the night sky: Jupiter. It's a bit away from the others, and I couldn't get it into the same frame, despite lashing out on a new $370 super-wide angle lens! It's in the constellation Leo the Lion.

So what's this sixth naked-eye planet? Just look down at the one below beneath your feet! *

'Last Chance to See', by the way, is the title of a book co-authored by Douglas Adams (of Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame). It was about several endangered species of animal around the globe. It could almost refer to the clear skies still sometimes available above planet Earth, or indeed to a liveable Planet Earth itself.


* With thanks to Perry Vlahos and the Sydney Morning Herald