Ad Astra Observatory

I was up very very early, walking the dogs. Champ asked to go out around 4:30.

It was a very cold (around 20°) but crisp and clear night. The crescent new-minus-3-days moon was just rising near a very bright Venus.

I started looking around to see what constellations were up, and I ran across an extra star in Virgo. It was near enough to Spica that the only way to tell which was the “right” one and which was the “interloper” was by the new star’s yellow color.

It was Saturn.

Normally, I keep pretty good track of where all the planets are, so I’m not caught by surprise like that. But Saturn (in particular) can get away from you occasionally, especially when it’s a strange time of night.

This reminds me of the first time that I “discovered” Saturn. I was sitting on the balcony of The Camden apartment, sometime in early autumn of 2003. We’d just moved to CA that year, and I had discovered, much to my surprise, that the sky was rotating, while chatting during a camping/rafting trip the previous weekend.

The whole sky rotation trick had me intrigued, and so I bought a little star atlas at Barnes & Noble, and was sitting on the balcony, book on my lap, and trying to figure out what I was looking at, staring at the few stars I could see between the lights of the surrounding apartments, the trees, and the hills. I had already picked out Aldebaran in Taurus, as a few more bright stars came over the horizon. I picked out what I could and realized that I was looking at Gemini, but that there was an “extra” bright star up there that wasn’t in my star atlas. I double and triple-checked to see if maybe the atlas was wrong, and then decided to check the ‘net, and sure enough…

It was Saturn.

Knowing what I know now, discovering “Saturn is in Virgo” is no big deal. But at the time, it was mind-blowing. That was the moment that I became truly hooked on astronomy.

The stars (at least, the northern ones) are all old friends now, and I give a little nod to Aldebaran each year in the fall, “Debbie” I call it, the first star whose name I ever learned.

But I have to admit a thrill, every time I re-discover a planet. It brings back the giddy rush of those early days, when I couldn’t tell the difference.

Thanks, Saturn. And welcome back.