Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun, eight planets, five dwarf planets, satellites, asteroids and comets. The planets orbit the Sun in the same sense that it turns on itself, the Sun gives a complete turnaround in 25 days, while the planets have a translation period greater than 25 days.

If you are the planets from the sun closest to the most distant, the order is as follows:

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

(Pluto is not considered planet since 2006)

Locate naked eye planets

The planets that are easy to locate are the brightest so pay attention and meet with the cardinal points is easy to see.

• Mercury and Venus are visible only at sunrise or sunset. Since these two planets are between Earth and the Sun is impossible that they can be seen at night because they are opposites.
• Mercury is very bright but since the orbit is very small and close to the sun is hard to see as it sits on the horizon to a very low level.
• Venus is a very bright object is seen at dawn and dusk.
• The other planets are visible, not all the naked eye, from dusk until dawn.
• Mars is easy to see because it has a bright reddish color, but is easily confused with a star called anthers that belongs to the constellation Scorpius. But to tell a star from a planet must consider whether flashing or not. If it does because it is a star.
• Jupiter is brighter than Mars but less than Venus.
• Saturn is difficult to identify with the naked eye as it is not as bright as Venus or Juita.
• Uranus and Neptune are not identifiable to the naked eye. To watch them is necessary to use binoculars or telescopes.

The so-called dwarf planets are too small and even major telescopes are needed to identify them.

Celestial charts and simulation software

There are Softwares, celestial charts wich detail the location of objects.

The software known and used by astronomers are:

Stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org/)

TheSkyX (http://www.bisque.com)

Starry Night (http://www.starrynight.com/)

Guide to Project Pluto (http://www.projectpluto.com/)