Apod: A dark and stormy night

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:35 pm

A beautiful photograph. Reminds me as a kid; wishing on a star. Mars and especially Venus were often the first visible stars at night.
Orin

craterchains · Post by **craterchains** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 9:23 pm

uhmmmm, I thought Venus and Mars were planets!?!?

Just kidding.

Norval

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:56 am

Yes I know! And I know your just kidding; but you know that when viewing the lights in the sky they are thought of as stars.
I see I also misspelled stormy. I ran a spell check but must not check the subject line. The October 31 APOD has as even better view of Mars. The APOD's get better all the time.
Orin

makc · Post by **makc** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 8:07 am

crosscountry · Post by **crosscountry** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:07 pm

it's common that people mistake planets for stars.

Just part of many misconceptions that people have about astronomy. We should be diligent and keep our own errors to a minimum - to avoid furthering those false ideas.

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 8:10 pm

The point I was trying to make was that the old rhyme of starlight star bright usually was looking at planets. As kids; unless you know they are planets; they usually are the first stars [planets] you see at night.
Orin