The dazzling duo of Venus and Jupiter light up our evening sky
this week. In this snowy scene, captured on Feb. 26 overlooking
Stagecoach, the brightest object is the moon. Jupiter is just to
the left of the moon, and Venus is below. Watch these two
planets converge during the next week until they appear side by
side on March 13. Jimmy Westlake's Celestial News column appears
Tuesdays in the Steamboat Today. Find more columns by Westlake
here. Steamboat Springs During the first two weeks of March our
evening sky is swarming with bright planets — Mars in the east
and Jupiter and Venus in the west. You might even catch a
glimpse of the elusive Mercury. These planets are the first
“stars” to pop out in the night sky because they are so bright,
but unlike the fixed stars, the planets drift around relative to
one another and the background stars. You can easily observe the
planets in motion this month. As March begins, Jupiter hovers 11
degrees above Venus in the western sky after sunset — that’s
about the width o