The Internet is amazing — not that I’m telling you anything you don’t already know. It’s just that I’m constantly reminded of it.

By posting to a Web site — something that requires minimal resources and expertise — one is stepping onto a world stage and becoming available to anyone with access to the Internet. The “www” prefix says it all — truly a World Wide Web spanning our entire planet.

When I created and posted my Stargazer Web site in 2002, I knew but didn’t fully grasp the scope of what I was doing. But in the past seven years, I’ve heard from people all over the world.

Just within the past week, I received e-mails from people in two far away places — Eric and Tristan, a father and his teenage son who live in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Renas, a Kurdish Iraqi. They found my Web site and e-mail address through Internet searches. And at their request, they now receive the free e-mail version of this column along with others around the U.S. and the world.

Eric and Tristan first e-mailed me last year with a question about colliding galaxies — an inquiry that inspired a Stargazer column. They’re now asking about looking for communications from other life in the cosmos, and I see another column in their query. (I get many column ideas from readers, so don’t hesitate to write.)

This father and teenage son exemplify another thing I love about amateur astronomy: It cuts across the generations, being an interest that can be shared by all ages.

Renas first contacted me in 2006, inquiring about my Learning the Night Sky book. A 22-year-old just completing a degree in geology, he and some friends had recently organized the Amateur Astronomers Association of Kurdistan. In one e-mail he sent a photo of the Iraqi National Observatory, showing damage done, according to Renas, by Iranian and U.S. airstrikes in earlier times — a sad reminder of the long-standing and tragic conflicts in Iraq.

In last week’s e-mail, Renas said he is coming to the U.S. — and specifically to Texas — for graduate study in geology. After spending the summer in Houston improving his English, he hopes to enter the University of Texas at Austin in the fall. So I may get to meet him and even take him out to our local astronomy club’s observatory. A small world indeed, and all thanks to the Internet.

* Next two weeks — Average sunrise: 6:24 a.m.; average sunset: 8:36 p.m. This morning, Jupiter is to the lower left of the moon. The moon is at third quarter Monday.

Friday morning, Mars is to the upper left of much brighter Venus with the crescent moon farther to their upper left, all low in the east before dawn. The summer solstice comes June 21 this year. The moon is new June 22.

* Naked-eye planets — (The sun, moon and planets rise in the east and set in the west due to Earth’s west-to-east rotation on its axis.) Evening: Saturn, high in the west, sets after midnight. Morning: Jupiter is the brightest object in the south; “morning star” Venus and much fainter Mars are low in the east; Mercury, lower in the east at dawn, is at its best today through Thursday.

* Star party — The Central Texas Astronomical Society’s free monthly star party begins at 8:30 tonight at the Waco Wetlands, weather permitting. For directions, see my Web site.

Stargazer appears every other Saturday in the Brazos Living section. Paul Derrick is an amateur astronomer who lives in Waco. Contact him at (254) 753-6920 or at paulderrickwaco@aol.com. See the Stargazer Web site at stargazerpaul.com.