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Patch associate regional editor David Powell offers his tips for what to see in the sky in the coming days The planet Mercury, which orbits closest to the Sun, and, is thus usually obscured from our view by our star's light, is entering a portion of its orbit that will make it visible low in our western sky during the evenings. Mercury is essentially a ball of iron covered in a fairly thin crust of silicate rock. Look for it near the western horizon between 20 and 50 minutes after sunset, starting Wednesday. It will be one of the brighter objects in the sky, exceeded only by the moon and the planets Venus and Jupiter. Mercury will perhaps be easiest to see during the week of Feb. 26. As March …
Because you're taking the time to read this column, I will assume you know that the Milky Way is not only a candy bar. But have you ever actually seen it? For an increasing number of people, the answer is "no." More on that in a moment. First, some background. The Milky Way is the galaxy ― the gravitational grouping of more than 100 billion stars ― to which our sun belongs. It's what's known as a barred spiral galaxy. Most of the stars in it are located in the central, bar-shaped region from which two long, spiral shaped arms protrude. Our sun is not in the center, but out in one of the arms…
