Columnist Susan Snyder: A new look at the new millennium

Saturday, Dec. 30, 2000 | 2:12 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

Maybe Las Vegas party planners didn't goof by not having fireworks last New Year's Eve.

Maybe they were planning ahead. Yeah, that's it. They were saving the $500,000 fireworks cascade for the official beginning of the new millennium.

Maybe that's why every national news media outlet has been rehashing Las Vegas Flub2K. They're jealous because their cities aren't doing squat to commemorate the real-life, genuine, honest-to-goodness, we-ain't-kiddin'-this-time new millennium.

Jim Mellor, outgoing president of the Las Vegas Astronomical Society, noted in the club's December newsletter that today marks the end of the second millennium.

"But we don't get into that," he said. "It's not really meaningful to us. Professional astronomers go by a Julian day."

A Julian day, devised by a mathematician who named it for his father in 1582, starts and ends at noon, he said. But no matter what you celebrate tonight there will be a pretty fantastic light show overhead -- provided you get far enough away from the glow of Fremont Street and the Strip.

With a steady hand and small telescope or big binoculars, people can see Jupiter and its moons, Saturn's rings and Venus, Mellor said.

Jupiter will rise from the east and be straight overhead around 9 p.m.

"The brightest thing you will see is Jupiter," Mellor said. "Saturn will be up from that and just to the right. It has a yellow cast to it."

Venus should be the bright thing sitting toward the west-southwest. And Orion, with its three stars forming the belt, is visible in the southeast. Look closely for a nebula -- a gaseous cloud -- in its southern end.

A meteor shower also should begin just before sunrise Monday and peak on Thursday before ending Friday, the society's newsletter editor, Jean Blackburn, says. Look in the northeast sky near the tail of the Big Dipper. You could see 50 to 200 an hour.

Blackburn also notes that 200 years ago this very night, Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi spotted what is believed to be the first recorded asteroid when he saw the one he named Ceres.

Piazzi didn't have to contend with modern-day light pollution. But Las Vegas Valley residents can flee its grip without driving too far, Mellor says.

He suggests starting at the Red Rock overlook on the north side of State Road 159 about a mile past the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area entrance. Keep heading west if it's not dark enough.

A new moon rose on Christmas, and it won't interfere until it's closer to being full, which happens Jan. 9. There's no point in star-gazing on or around a full moon without a high-power scope.

"You might as well stay home and read a book," Mellor said.

Unless you happen to live in Europe, Africa or Asia. Those residents can see a total lunar eclipse Jan. 9. Canadians and residents of the northeast United States may see a partial one. The rest of us will have to stick with the book.

But leave the book at home this year. We just may have it right this time, whether we choose fireworks, funny hats and 500,000 of our closest friends or Jupiter, Saturn and meteor showers.

Bring on the new millennium. We're ready.