Planetary Night runs shorter and at much higher magnification than our other sessions, since planets reward a completely different kind of patience — waiting for a moment of still air rather than waiting for your eyes to adapt.
Which planets are actually worth observing changes throughout the year, so this session’s exact target list is set the week of, based on what’s well-placed above the horizon. Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s four largest moons are the two most reliable crowd favorites when either planet is up.
We keep this one to ninety minutes on purpose — high-magnification observing is genuinely tiring, and the good views tend to cluster in short, excellent windows rather than spreading evenly across a long night.