This picture is a screenshot of the night sky view on January 19th, 2020 over Nashville through the lens of Star Atlas. Star Atlas is a website that allows anyone across the world to see the names and locations of various stars and planets they might see in the sky. In addition to a night mode, the site also features a day time view of the sky. I decided to use Star Atlas to see if I could identify any stars in the sky this evening since it was such a clear day. I was easily able to identify a few of the marked stars and Venus. The site also allows you to click on a particular star, planet, or other object and see the estimated distance and magnitude. I found it very interesting to look into these numbers as it helped me create a three-dimensional view of the solar system. I would recommend checking it out if you have some free time on a clear night.
Jack's Blog 
Cool! I have loved seeing Venus after Sunset this week. It’s so bright. If you can look at it with binoculars, you can see it’s phase. Looks like a waxing Gibbous? Check it out using this simulator: https://space.jpl.nasa.gov/
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From a TA: Like Dr. Stewart mentioned, there are several kinds of simulators to mimic the night sky. Some other fun and free programs to view the night’s sky are Stellarium for computers and Google Sky for mobile phones.
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