FoxTrot by Bill Amend for August 04, 2019

hurrah for you, Paige

Nice that it’s accurate in that Jupiter and Saturn are prominent right now, but the moon’s just past new – could she see it yet?

Behold, the blue horizon line

We see Orion rising

Interesting: I was just looking at both of them in my cheap scope, magnified only 80 times. I can make out a few stripes on Jupiter. Through several days observation, I see that the plane of the four Gallilean moons’ orbits isn’t exactly parallel with earth’s. Not sure if I can just make out a moon or two by Saturn, but the rings sure show distinctly. The planets are less than 30 degrees apart, but they’re lower to the southern horizon than Jason and Paige are looking.

…and that’s the International Space Station…

Spotting Saturn in the starfield without a telescope, good luck with that.

For once, Paige got over on Jason!

If at first you don’t succeed . . .

Wait till dawn, then make your wish on the sun.

Clever, Paige!

Hey, even the non-stars can grant you wishes! How ’bout that!

In Lovecraft’s horror fiction his interest in astronomy shows up in his works. He even published an amateur pamphlet on astronomy when he was about Jason’s age.

Satellite, satell-bright, first satellite tonight…

It’s always best to wish in such a way that the wished-for outcome becomes probable. Also known as “God helps those who help themselves.”

Yeah…Could you say that in ENGLISH?

I figured she did it on purpose

I was fooling around with a star gazer app that shows you what you are looking at in the night sky. This may sound crazy, but I pointed out Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune within a timespan of 1 hour.