By Gary Boyle
Human civilizations have looked up at the night sky for entertainment as well as science.
It was noticed from a very early time that five "stars" seem to move across the back ground of constellations. These mystery objects were called "planets" which comes from the Greek meaning "wanderer".
Uranus, Neptune and (minor planet) Pluto were discovered within the past few hundred years by telescope.
Most times we can see the naked eye planets at night or in the morning except when a planet disappears in the solar glare and is dangerous to watch.
On rare occasions the naked eye planets are fanned out in one area of sky.
From January 20 to February 20, step outside about an hour before dawn and look south to see the other members of our solar system.
In fact the five planets as well as the Sun and Moon are named for the seven day of the week.
Gary Boyle
The Backyard Astronomer
Twitter: @astroeducator
