Tracking those wanderers...

Please mark, in pencil, the positions of planets on your Coordinate Star Wheel.

Since planet positions change, if you make your marks in pencil,
you can erase and update their positions as needed.

Good ways to find planets include: Online, check out: Abram's Planetarium Skywatcher's Diary and Que Tal in the Current Sky Check current issue of Sky and Telescope magazine or Astronomy magazine Get publications such as Observers Handbook from Royal Astronomical Society of Canada or Guy Ottwell's Astronomical Calendar (Dept. of Physics, Furman University, Greenville, S.C.) Get An Ephemeris of the Planet's Coordinates. An EPHEMERIS is a listing of celestial coordinates that pinpoints the object's location as it moves in the sky. At the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) web site, you can find an Ephemeris generator at http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. (Click on "Ephemerides-Horizons" then choose the "WWW" method. Or just go directly to http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eph ) You need to provide: Which planet you want to locate. From where on Earth you want to be observing (Pick your own city or one not far from yours). In what time period you would like to observe. This includes what month/days you want as well as the interval between coordinate listings (days, hours or minutes). For planets that move fast (like Venus or Mars) you probably want a shorter interval (like every week or even every day). For the slower moving planets (Jupiter or Saturn) you may want to set an interval of more than 1 week or even each month.

Venus     Jupiter

There are many features you can request the Ephemeris Generator to list
(in "Select New Output Quantities" button), but for your first ephemeris,
keep it simple--request only:

• #2 Apparent RA
• DEC (Right Ascension and Declination)
• and possibly # 29 Constellation ID