Tour of the Sky: March 2010

Astronomy a Go Go! March Sky Tour

This tool displays the approximate Moon phases for a given month(images are close approximations). For official phase times and dates for this month and past months are available from the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Astronomical Online Glossary

Download this month's sky map!

Skymaps.com is our favorite monthly skymap provider. Download either the Northern hemisphere, Equatorial, or Southern Hemisphere sky map so you can follow along with our viewing sessions. Creator: Kym Thalassoudis

 

Southern Hemisphere Additional Information

As Astronomy a Go Go! finds its home in the higher Northern latitudes those of you who live south of the equator will benefit from these two Southern Hemisphere sites: Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand's Southern Hemisphere Calendar RASNZ site (absolutely outstanding) and Southern Sky Watch.

 

March Planets (click images to enlarge)

 

The Sun is where the party is this month!

• Mercury- Passing from the morning sky to join Venus in the evening skies this month, in superior conjunction on the 14th. Starting around the 26th (earlier if you are further south) start looking for Mercury as he sneaks up on Venus, the bright becon near the horizon. -0.7 mag (1st) to -1.6 (21st)
• Venus- Beautiful in the evening twilight near the horizon. Pull out your binoculars (after sunset) and look for the changes phases as Venus pulls away from the Sun. From the end of this month into the beginning of April Mercury will be paired up with Venus in the evening sky. -4.0 mag (1st) to -4.0 mag (21st)
• Mars- King of the Night Sky! In Cancer all month as it on the 11th becoming prograde. Mar's northern hemisphere is tipped towards us and with dark skies and good optics you can expect some spectacular views. As we pull away from each other Mars will shrink in apparent diameter from 12" to 9" Look for the bright red point of light to the SE of Castor and Pollux -0.6 mag (1st) to -0.1 mag (21st)
• Jupiter- Starts the month in the glare of the Sun having just passed into conjunction Feb 28th. Jupiter rises slightly earlier each morning and sharp-eyed viewers may be able to pick the gas giant out of the low eastern horizon by the end of the month. For northern viewers Jupiter is on a very shallow path, better for southern viewers. -2.0 mag (1st) to -2.0 mag (21st)
• Saturn- Fantastic! Rises early-evening is in the arms of Virgo all month. Look to the SE of Leo the Lion as he rises on his tail... Saturn is next brightest object to rise. The rings continue to open with clear spaces, on the sides, now visible in small scopes and binoculars. Give it a couple of hours to get above the local horizon then start looking for rings and moons. 0.7 mag (1st) to 0.7 mag (21st)
• Uranus- Still too close to the Sun. 5.9 mag (1st) to 5.9 mag (21st)
• Neptune- Just coming out of conjunction reappearing in the morning sky near the Aquarius-Capricornus border 8.0 mag (1st) to 8.0 mag (21st)

Astronomical Highlights for March 2010

Days and Times in UT: (help with time) Observations are for 8 pm for Northern Hemisphere and 10 pm for the Southern Hemisphere. Today's sunrise and sunset times or plan ahead using the US Naval Observatory Website

Occultation information can be found at the IOTA website!

Day	Event
	- Zodiacal lights visible in Northern latitudes in W after evening twilight for next 2 weeks
7	- Last Quarter Moon (15:47 UT)
11	- Mars stationary, switching from retrograde to prograde
12	- Moon at apogee, furtherst from the Earth at 406,008km
14	- Daylight saving time begins
12-13	- TAS Student Messier Marathon...good luck everyone!
15	- New Moon (21:01 UT)
17	- Sliver of a waxing cresenct near Venus in the evening twilight skies. Photo-op!
20	- Equinox! The Sun on the Ecliptic passes from South to North across the celestial equator.
21	- Possible occultation of the Plieades check the IOTA website for visibility in your area.
22	- Saturn at opposition. It is at it brightest for the year and also its closest Earth-Saturn distance
23	- First Quarter Moon (11:00 UT)
28	- Moon at perigee, closest to Earth at 361,876km
30	- Full Moon (2:25 UT)

Date information courtesy of: RASC Observer's Handbook, Astronomical Calendar 2009, CalSky, Skymaps.com. sunrise and sunset times for your home* Comparative lengths of day and night

Monthly Messier*

This month we will look for 10 objects, 8 open clusters in the southern milky way and a pair of galaxies, all are within reach of binoculars. The open clusters are easy binocular targets and most are visible with the naked eye. M81 and M82 are difficult binocular targets that offer a stunning telescopic view.

M41 This cluster in Canis Major is visible as a hazy patch to the naked eye just below Sirius. M41 is resolvable in binoculars and appears fairly loose in telescopes at low power.

M93 This is a small fuzzy patch of light in Puppis, partially resolvable in binoculars. The hardest part of finding this cluster in binoculars is picking it out of a fairly rich region of the milky way. Use low power to examine this cluster and the surrounding richness in a telescope. Medium power provides a nice view of the cluster itself.

M47 A bright cluster in Puppis, easily visible as a hazy patch to the naked eye. Binoculars will show a large hazy patch with many stars resolvable. Telescopes show a fairly loose cluster with stars of wide variety of magnitudes.

M46 This cluster is right next to M47 and is also visible to the naked eye. In binoculars M46 appears as a large hazy patch with no stars resolvable, giving a nice contrast to M47. In telescopes at low powers this cluster evenly fills the eyepiece. While you are here go to medium or high power and look for the planetary nebula NGC2438. It will appear as a faint uneven ring, with a blue/green color.

M50 An open cluster in Monoceros. This is a small hazy patch in binoculars, partially resolvable. Like M93, the richness of the surrounding field is the only difficulty in finding this object. This is a fairly tight cluster at low power in a telescope.

M48 Moving on to Hydra, we find another naked eye cluster. M48 is a large fuzzy patch in binoculars, partially resolvable. Use low to medium power in your telescope for a spectacular view.

M67 In the southeast portion of Cancer is another open cluster, barely visible as a fuzzy patch to the naked eye. Binoculars show M67 as a large hazy patch of light, similar to M46. Use low power to resolve this large, rich cluster in a telescope.

M44 Known as the Praesepe or Beehive Cluster, this open cluster is easily visible to the naked eye as a large, fuzzy patch bigger than the moon. Binoculars or rich field telescopes provide the best view of M44.

M81, M82 This pair of galaxies in Ursa Major are very possible to see in binoculars, they look like a pair of fuzzy stars. Both galaxies will fit into the same low power telescope field. M81 will appear as a large oval gray patch of light. M82 is a pencil like streak of light next to and perpendicular to the long axis of M81.

From the Astronomical Connection and the Moncton Center in Canada

From the Tony Cecce, Corning, NY - Twelve Month Tour of The Messier Catalog

Bright(er) Comets for March 2010

• C/2007 Q3 (Siding Spring): ~9 mag - in Pictor
• 81P/Wild2(2010): ~9 mag in Virgo
• McNaught: ~9 mag midnight/early morning Serpens to Aquarius.

More comet information at Seiichi Yoshida's comet website. Also checkout Gary Kronk's comet and meteor pages Skyhound Comet pages

Historical and Current Events

...Did you know?

Mark has developed his own website so let's all trot on over and see the pages of wonderful history he has for us this month!

 

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Music B.D. Lenz -"Lazy Bones" Albert- "Life on a Beach" Brain Bucket- "Rocket Science"

 

Great Astronomy Activities!

Globe at Night

Help measure light pollution by gazing at Orion...what could be better than star gazing for Science! Find all the tools you need at their website Globe at Night.

Citizen Sky

For those in Northern Hemisphere, Capella, the "She Goat" in Aurigae, is circumpolar. At my 47 deg North, Capella disappears behind the tree line, and into the light polluted horizon, but she pops up in a few hours and is easy to find. Also easy to find are epsilon Aurigae (al Maaz the Billy Goat) and "The Kids" which make a small, long, triangle of stars just to the Southwest of Capella.

For the next 21 months Epsilon Aurigae, usually the brightest of the trio, will start behaving quite differently than it has for the past 27 years. Epsilon Aurigae is a type of variable star called an eclipsing binary. Epsilon Aurigae and some unknown dark partner, rotate around a common center of mass and every 27 years that dark companion eclipses the giant F-type star. August marks the anticipated beginning for that eclipse which will last for 714 days, dimming from 3.0 mag to about half of its brightness.

So why am I calling this a great astronomy activity? Epsilon Aurigae has some definite quirks and more eyes are needed to help scientist figure out what Epsilon Aurigae's invisible partner really is! We need help...WE NEED YOU!! Anyone can participate; we need people to observe epsilon Aurigae, folks to look at the data for quirks, patterns, or voids, artist to help present the data to the public, friends willing to get the word out to others! To find out more visit:

• The Citizen Sky Project
• AAVSO page on Epsilon Aurigae