With apologies to the
Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, aka The Greatest Show On Earth, there has been something even more spectacular happening in the night sky for the last several weeks. If you are like me its easy to get caught up in all the earthly details of our lives from work to grocery shopping, to household chores. Its nice to occasionally be reminded that there are things going on that are truly other-worldly. Sometimes all we have to do is look up at the night sky.
Since February two planets and our own moon have been dancing in the western sky just after sunset. The two planets, Jupiter and Venus, had been doing a duet but in the last several days the moon has joined in. Venus, the brightest of the three right now as the moon is in its crescent phase, is at its farthest from the sun and is particularly high in the sky as viewed from earth. Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet, is less bright but still clearly visible to the naked eye. With binoculars you can even see several of Jupiter's moons including Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. And if all that is not enough, simply turn around and glance at the east and you'll catch a glimpse of Mars rising above the horizon.
This combination of events only happens like this every several decades so if you have small children the next time you see this with them they'll likely be graduating from college or raising a family of their own. So take a moment and glance up. It really is the greatest show (not) on earth.
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