Looking Up

Our home school kids are helping their parents learn a great deal about astronomy this year. We've spent more time looking up at the sky in the past month than I can ever remember. Now we don't live out in the country where we can see thousands and thousands of stars every night, but when the planets are shining this brightly, they show up even in a brightly-lit, dusty, smoky city sky! We've been watching Venus and Jupiter move across the evening sky for the past several weeks. Beth took this pic a few weeks ago, on the first night that we spotted them.

Tonight, while we were having dinner outside at Chili's, we could see the moon, Venus and Jupiter, all just before sunset even! It's probably easier for us to spot the planets, since we don't have any other stars in the sky to compete with them.

And this sticky bubbly mess in my kitchen is a representation of the biggest volcano in the solar system. It's called Olympus Mons, and the real one is on Mars.

Tonight, after supper, we were walking down the street to yet another American establishment for dessert when Lee Anna asked where Jupiter was. Beth said, "It's behind that building." So I joked that it was going to smash the building if it was right behind it. But Lee Anna said, "No, it won't smash anything! Jupiter is made of gasses!"

Why didn't I think of that?