Rising above the SE horizon every evening after sunset, that brilliant, blazing orb is Jupiter, currently shining at magnitude "-2.7, or there abouts". A negative sign before any star or celestial point of light is denoting its brilliance, signifying that its brightness is ABOVE 1st magnitude. We thank Hipparchus of Nicea for establishing a system of rating stellar brightnesses in the 2nd century B.C. He simply looked at all the myriad brightnesses of all the stars in the heavens, and started the system of standardizing a star's brightness by classifying them as magnitude 1, mag. 2, mag. 3....down to his lowest rating of mag. 6 for the dimmest naked-eye stars.

It turns out that Hipparchus's system was equal to a 100-times-variation in the brightness range, whether brighter or dimmer, from any one magnitude to the next. We still refer to this system in street slang when we say a popular movie star, or weatherman, of course, is "of the 1st magnitude" because they stand out more than others. Just for the record, the Full Moon rates as -13.5 magnitude, while our Sun rates a full -26 magnitude. And, just as there are dimmer stars than 6th magnitude, the positive numbers help to rate the dimmest stars that telescopes can see. Our typical stars seen with telescopes between 4"up to our 14" CETUS telescope can pull in stars down to around 12th mag. to 18th mag. respectively.

The brightest true star in the night sky is Sirius (not satellite radio), and Sirius is the brightest star in Canis Major, the Big Dog, which follows just behind Orion the Mighty Hunter and along with Canis Minor, are considered to be Orion's hunting dogs. On celestial maps depicting the artwork associated with individual constellations, you'll also note Lepus, the Hare, just under Orion's feet. He strides boastfully along the banks of the celestial river, Eridanus, while facing him head-on is Taurus, the Bull, charging headlong at Orion with his club upraised to counter Taurus's charge.

Sorry, got a little carried away with the poetic discourse........all this stuff is in the WINTER, which I personally can NOT wait for, whew. Back to stellar magnitudes.

Only Venus, Jupiter and Mars can reach brightnesses greater than Sirius's normal brightness of -1.6 magnitude. Venus can reach a magnitude of -4.5; Jupiter, as much as -2.7; and Mars can attain -2.9 at its absolute brightest once every 15 or 17 years...which all has to do with its orbit being very elliptical, and when Earth happens to be farthest from the Sun in our orbit at around the same time that Mars is CLOSEST to the Sun in its orbit, which only occurs in the summertime.

Through any telescope, no matter how small, even binoculars of at least 7X or 8X, you find that Jupiter has four moons orbiting it which were first discovered by Galileo with his 1" diameter, 20X telescope exactly 398 years ago last January. AOAS is a participant in the upcoming Year of Astronomy 2009, which the entire world celebrates as the 400th anniversary of the invention of the telescope, and in 2010, the 400th anniversary of modern astronomy because of Galileo's careful sketches of all that he observed with his telescope and other scientific instruments.

Take a look, either with, or without visual assistance of any kind, that brilliant "star" in the SE every night after sundown. Watch over the next four or five months as it slowly makes it's way month-by-month, westward until it lies above the western horizon at sunset in November and December. It's the "star" of the show for all AOAS events from now until it sets, and until next January-February when Saturn come 'round once again. (08/11/08) Jupiter now lies in the southern skies shortly after darkness falls. By October, it will be closer to the SW region of the sky at the same time each evening.