I started babysitting when I was 15 years old. I often sat for families on my block. Normally one of the parents would walk me home at night. One father always had such fascinating information about the stars and planets to share as he escorted me home. His passion for astronomy piqued my curiosity for a lifetime.

In college I begged the administration to offer an astronomy course to meet my science requirement. I flew into my first class so excited to finally have the mysteries of the planets and stars revealed. To my dismay and horror, the professor used a grease pencil on plastic sheets projected on a screen to do one long division problem after another, after another, after another. I never understood where the numbers came from or what the answer indicated. The professor was brilliant, I’m sure, but when I tried to get clarification, I couldn’t understand a word. I switched to geology.

After I retired in 2015, I took the trip of a lifetime. I flew to New Zealand and Australia culminating with a 22-day cruise from Sydney, Australia to Vancouver, British Columbia. One of the highlights was attending lectures from an English astronomy professor who not only shared about the constellations, but late one clear night we gathered on the deck to see the stars—including the Southern Cross! Unfortunately, the ocean was quite choppy, the wind was brisk and cold and while leaning back to try and see I was overcome by vertigo!

Now, fast forward to my vacation in Cabo San Lucas in 2025. You can imagine my thrill to learn that there were to be a few weeks when a celestial alignment of the planets would be visible!

Starting mid-January just after sunset, four planets were easily visible with the unaided eye: Venus and Saturn close together with Jupiter overhead—all just above the southwestern horizon. Planet Mars with its signature red glow was clearly obvious in the eastern sky.

Not having access to binoculars or a telescope, I could only imagine roughly where Uranus was near Jupiter and Neptune near Venus and Saturn.

One evening we met a guest in the elevator who was also going out to see the planets. We compared notes as to which planets were where and he gave me the key to access the heavens that I had longed for since I was a 15-year-old babysitter! The magical key did not exist back then, but what a game changer for NOW! He introduced me to Stellarium, a free App for my iPhone! This app provided me with such a boost to clearly identify the planets, stars, and constellations. Stellarium, plus the clear Cabo skies, allowed me to finally see the much-acclaimed Parade of Planets.

Simply open the Stellarium App, hold the camera towards the sky, and view the exact locations of seen and unseen planets and stars.

Unfortunately, Mercury rose each morning behind a low-lying fog bank and the brilliant sunrise easily washed it out by the time it rose over the clouds. When Mercury was scheduled to rise after sunset with a greater chance to be seen, I was back in the Pacific Northwest with clouds and rain.

Nevertheless, by using the Stellarium App, and just knowing where the planets and constellations were, I felt I had seen them!

Speaking of constellations—I can usually make out the big dipper and Orion’s Belt. Otherwise, I get dizzy looking up and the heavenly bodies just swirl around. You can imagine my delight and awe to have the Stellarium App trace out and name the visible constellations.

I had a surprise when the app introduced me to a constellation previously unknown to me, Drako, the dragon! Since I was born in the Lunar Year of the Dragon, which was quickly ending, I felt this was a special sign and farewell to my year. Discovering “my” Drako constellation and finally—six decades after having my interest in astronomy piqued—to have seen and identified the planets was an out of this world experience—truly written in the stars!