An Astronomy Story told to me by Mr. Marney Mason

I would like to share a small story which I think a fellow amateur astronomer could appreciate.

In 1975, I was with the Army in southern Arizona. (Beautiful clear dark skies for observing!)

At that time there was a very nice conjunction of planets which could be seen with the naked eye.

I took one of my friends out to a dark field and told him he would be able to see 5 of the 9 known planets without using any optics.

I started at the horizon: "There is Mercury - small and looking a little yellow. And the brighter one - that is Venus. A little higher is Mars - you can clearly see the red color. And the really bright one is Jupiter. You can actually see the moons!" I stopped.

He turned to me and said, "Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, that is only 4 - where is the fifth?

I looked at him and said simply "You are standing on it!"

At that point I think he understood exactly where he was in the solar system. And his relative importance.

Marney