Planets & Stars: How to Tell the Difference

Who hasn't gazed into a starry sky and pondered their existence? There are millions of lights up there, some twinkling, some not, some large and some small. We grow curious and begin to wonder which is a planet of our solar system, and which are stars?

Many people say that if you see a star, it twinkles and when you look at a planet, it doesn't. This is true but does not always hold true because of air turbulence in our planet's atmosphere. This turbulence causes both stars and planets to twinkle. If there is little interference, the planets will appear as bright, shining objects while the stars will blink and wink. Should there be a lot of turbulence, everything in the sky will twinkle, however. So what to do next? It's a little baffling, especially if you are looking without the help of binoculars or a telescope.

There are five planets you can find without the aid of a telescope. Saturn, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury are easily detected with the naked eye. If you were to see these planets and compare them to stars, you would find that the planets are much brighter than any of the stars around them. The planets are sometimes larger, too, because they are closer to the earth. Discovering them is simple as long as you know where to find them.

Locate the planets by following the sun's path. Planets rise in the east and set in the west, just like the sun. They also follow the great ecliptic arc that begins in the east, rises and tilts to the south and ends in the west. The ecliptic is the sun's path, and it changes during the year as the earth rotates on its axis. If you still have difficulty, know that Venus and Mercury can only be seen on the western horizon after the sun sets or on the eastern horizon before sunrise. Saturn, Mars and Jupiter can be found throughout the night, but like the moon, may not always be in the night sky.

Enjoy your nightly adventures. This is a basic look at astronomy and is not meant to be all-inclusive. If you want more information or need an in-depth look, visit Astronomy or NASA.