Check out night skies for a show

Four planets, meteor shower all visible this week

Look to the skies this week, Yuma, because there’s quite the show going on right now.

This week, there are several planets visible to the naked eye. In fact, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars all can be spotted.

Venus is especially bright, appearing in the west after sunset, looking like a bright evening “star,” EarthSky.org notes.

Jupiter is best seen around dusk or nightfall, appearing a bit west (right) of due south, EarthSky reports. The planet is brighter than any star – but it’s not as bright as Venus or Mars.

Saturn and Mars, meanwhile, are both visible in the eastern half of the sky at dusk and nightfall, EarthSky reports. The organization notes that middle to late evening offers the best view of these two planets. An added bonus? Mars looks red in the sky, making it easy to spot.

So what’s the best way to go about seeing these planets?

One can simply look to the skies, but honestly, it can be hard to know what one is looking at, and light pollution in the city can be issue.

However, Yuma County offers ideal viewing conditions, if one takes a few steps to make the process easy.

First, download a stargazing app. On the iPhone, Night Sky offers a plethora of information. Members of the Yuma Sun team tried this app out last weekend, and it was pretty amazing. On Android phones, SkyMap by Google gets rave reviews.

With these apps, one is able to point the phone toward the sky, and see a map that corresponds with the sky. One can spot constellations, stars, planets, satellites and more, and give names to what one sees.

Once one has an app or two downloaded, head out somewhere where the light pollution isn’t as bad, maybe a dark stretch of roadway on the edge of the desert. (But be careful – it’s still summer, it’s still hot, and one can still be at risk!). Give your eyes a bit of time to adjust to the darkness, and start looking. The Milky Way alone is pretty amazing to see.

As an added bonus, the Perseids meteor shower is about to peak. On the nights of Aug. 11-13, one will be able to see about 60-70 meteors per hour, with the best views coming on the night of Aug. 12-13, Space.com says.

The night skies this week will be amazing, readers. Set aside a little time to enjoy the show!

I am writing regarding the Sunday, Aug. 5th article about people leaving 1 gallon water bottles along trails frequented by illegal immigrants in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. I worry that they are encouraging people to continue to enter dangerous areas and put their lives at risk.

I would like to thank the U.S. Border Patrol for installing rescue beacons that people in distress can use to get help. I support expanding the number of these life saving beacons.

In reply to Mr. Gregory Gardner’s letter published on July 27th:

This gentleman ponders why the previous administration didn’t act during the 2016 Presidential election regarding Russian cyber and information warfare (if we are to call “meddling” what it truly is). Before I continue and answer his posed question, (“Why didn’t the officials and media catch the evil deeds and do something?”), I’d like to point out he incorrectly stated as fact that Robert Mueller was Director of the FBI during that time, along with James Comey. The fact is, we don’t have two Directors at the same time, and Mueller served as Director from 2001 to 2013. The answer to his question is: The previous administration did attempt to secure bipartisan support for an imminent national security threat and was essentially told to take a hike by the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Not to mention Barack Obama told President-Elect Donald Trump face-to-face not to hire then-compromised, now-guilty General Michael Flynn as National Security Advisor. Advice which was promptly ignored, helping set one of the first records of the current administration: shortest serving National Security Advisor in American history at just 24 days. Because President Trump only hires the best people, right?

Going thru old pictures sparked a memory of a well loved first grade teacher — she taught us this little song we loved to sing — “I went to (name of town) and walked around the block; walked right into the Bakery Shop, I picked two doughnuts out of the grease and handed the Lady a 5 cent piece - she looked at the nickel and looked at me, said she “this nickel is no good to me, there’s a hole in the middle and it’s all the way thru” — said I “there’s a hole in the doughnuts too.”

There was also a lesson in this — at the time it was not uncommon for a person to try passing off the same size slug as a nickel — we all now knew better than to try — long time ago at the beginning of the Great Depression.

How much farther in the gutter are we going to go before someone puts a stop to the foul language, sex, violence and filth that is on our TVs?

A few years ago, it wasn’t necessary to have all this garbage on our good TV programs — why now?

I thank God that I don’t have to watch these programs. The premiums are bad enough. I also thank God that I don’t have to purchase any of the products advertised with these programs.

May God bless our great country.