STAR GAZER
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION
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Dean: Hey there stargazers I'm Dean Regas from
the Cincinnati Observatory and I'll be your guest host this month
on Star Gazer and I've got a load of astro goodies for you this
time. Let's start with the badly misnamed Daylight Saving Time
returning on Sunday March 13th, then pinkish Mercury pays a close
visit to giant Jupiter on Monday and Tuesday March 14 and 15th
plus we'll have the closest and biggest full Moon in 18 years
next week on Sat-urday March 19th. And finally the Vernal Equinox,
the beginning of spring, will occur at 7:21 p.m. Eastern Time
on Sunday March 20th.
Daylight Saving Time, which should more prop-erly be called Daylight Shifting Time, kicks in at 2 a.m. Sunday the 13th. Remember the old saw, "Spring forward, Fall back"? You reset your clock by an hour but no daylight is actually saved, no more extra daylight is actually created, it's just shifted from the morning to the evening. There is no cue in nature for doing this, it is just at the whim of Congress. But while you're out there enjoying that extra daylight at the end of your day look low in the west right after the Sun sets and as the sky gets darker you'll see the closest evening planet-pairing of 2011. Let me show you.
Next week on Monday March 14 about 45 minutes after sunset look low in the west and you should see two bright star-like lights low not far above the hori-zon. The pink planet Mercury will be about 2 1/2 degrees down and to the right of much brighter Jupiter. The next night Tuesday the 15th, same time, same direction, Mercury will be even closer to Jupiter and a bit higher. Mercury will continue to climb higher each night for the next two weeks while Jupiter will drop lower each night and will soon be gone from eve-ning skies. Now remember that even though Mercury and Jupiter appear to be very close together in the sky, they are really hundreds of millions of miles apart. Mercury will be much, much closer to you, a bit over 100 million miles away while Jupiter will be almost 5 1/2 times farther away, 548 million miles away. Another way to think of it is that next Tuesday the 15th the sunlight reflecting from Mercury will take 9 minutes to cross the solar system so you can see it, while the sunlight bouncing off Jupiter will take 49 minutes to get here.
Now next Sat-urday the 19th you'll be treated to the closest and biggest full Moon of 2011. It's not only the closest full Moon for this year but it will be the closest and biggest full Moon since March 8, 1993! Plus it will be the biggest full Moon you'll see for the next five years, until November 14, 2016. What exactly is meant by that term "Full Moon?" Most of the time people say that a full Moon is a big, round, fully illuminated Moon and the Moon looks like this for several days each month. Well we're a bit more finicky with the definition of the word "Full Moon". In astronomy "Full Moon" means that the Moon's apparent geocentric ecliptic longitude is 180 degrees more than the Sun's apparent geocentric ecliptic longitude. Whew! Quite a mouth full huh? Well simply put this means the Moon is on the other side of the sky from the Sun as seen from Earth. This definition allows us to determine the exact time for Full Moon. One minute before and it's not quite full and one minute after and it's all over until next month. But why is the Moon a different size at different full Moons?
Well the Moon's path in its orbit around the Earth is not quite a circle. The Moon averages about 240,000 miles from Earth but can get as close as 221,441 miles and as far as 252,723 miles. That's a range of over 30,000 miles. So a full Moon can be very close, such as the one next week or it can be 30,000 miles farther away like the farthest and smallest full Moon for this year which will be on October 11. Nothing about the Moon's orbit repeats exactly so the distance of the full Moon shrinks and expands over a period of roughly 14 months and they are not all the same. The last time we had a full Moon closer than this one was in March of 1993 and the next time will be in November 2016. So be sure to see this extremely close full Moon and don't miss Jupiter and Mercury at their closest and remember to keep looking up
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Dean: Daylight Saving Time, kicks in at 2 a.m. Sunday the 13th. Remember, "Spring for-ward, Fall back"? Then pinkish Mercury pays a close visit to giant Jupiter on March 14 and 15th plus we'll have the closest and biggest full Moon in 18 years next week on March 19th. And finally spring, will begin at 7:21 pm Eastern Time on March 20th. Let me show you. On March 14 about 45 minutes after sunset look low in the west and you'll see two bright star-like lights not far above the horizon. Mercury will be below and to the right of much brighter Jupiter. The next night Mercury will be closer to Jupiter and a bit higher. Then next Saturday the 19th you'll be have the closest and biggest full Moon of 2011. Catch this extremely close full Moon and don't miss Jupiter and Mercury at their closest. Remember to keep looking up!
How did you like this episode?
Please give us your comments. (Click
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
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Dean: Hey there stargazers, I'm Dean Regas, outreach
astronomer for the Cincinnati Ob-servatory and I'll be your guest
host this month on star gazer. Are you seeking direction in your
life? The stars can help - well, at least they can tell you the
difference between north and south. This week, we'll focus on
the dimmer stars and constellations in the northern sky and contrast
them with the blazingly bright stars in the southern sky. Along
the way, I'll share my tip to find Polaris, the North Star. Here
let me show you.
Polaris is the guide of travelers, stargazers, and all-around
lovers of the night. It twinkles at the end of the Little Dipper's
handle or the Little Bear's outrageously long tail. Contrary to
popular opinion, the North Star is not the brightest star in the
sky. That honor belongs to Sir-ius, the dog star. In fact, Polaris
ranks about 48th in brightness and through the light pollu-tion
of civilization, it's just barely visible. Well, what makes Polaris
so darned special?
Polaris resides almost directly over our north pole. So as the
Earth rotates causing day and night and the daily motions of all
the stars and planets, the North Star barely moves. That means
all night this star shines in the northern sky making it the perfect
stellar sentinel.as the world turns and the night goes on, the
stars appear to rotate in a counterclockwise mo-tion. This motion
gives us the appearance that the sky spins once a day with a pivot
point at Polaris. Stars like the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia circle
around the north star while things farther south rise in the east
and set in the west. Of course it's the Earth that's spinning
not the sky!
Since the Little Dipper has some very faint stars, finding the
North Star can be tough. But never fear - the other dipper is
here! The Big Dipper is much more distinct and can be seen even
from urban areas. You can find the Big Dipper standing on its
handle in the early eve-ning. The ancient Greeks and some native
American groups both called these stars a big bear. Now the Big
Dipper is only the rear end and tail of the bear. But have you
ever seen a bear with a tail like that? It looks more like a raccoon
to me. Native American legends de-scribe a strong hunter flinging
this momma bear into the sky by her tail. The poor thing really
got stretched out! The baby bear got the same treatment and was
flung up to the stars to be near his mother. So tonight at 9:30
use the more notable stars of the Big Dipper as pointers.
Connect the dots of the two stars at the end of the Big Dipper's
spoon. Continue that line down to the left and bingo they'll point
you right to Polaris. We're not done with the Big Dip-per's pointer
stars yet. If you go from the Big Dipper to the North Star, keep
going, because you will run into the bottom of a "w"
shaped constellation. This is Cassiopeia the queen. Can you see
the beautiful, boastful queen sitting on her throne? Well anyway,
I picture these stars as her crown glittering in the northwestern
sky. But Cassiopeia is easy to find as you hop across the heavens.
The distance between the Big Dipper and Polaris is the same as
the distance from Polaris to Cassiopeia.
Now let's turn around and face south. Wow,
there are the bright stars! You can see the brightest of them
all half-way above the southern horizon. That's Sirius the dog
star which marks the nose of Canis Major, Orion's big dog. Sirius
is about 23 times brighter than the North Star and scorches the
winter sky with a stark white light.
Up higher, but not quite as bright is the little dog star, Procyon.
Procyon is one of two visible stars in Canis Minor, the little
dog. Only two stars? That's right, this is a real hot dog! Higher
still are two equally bright stars of differing colors. These
are the heads of the Gemini twins, Pollux and Castor. With a good
imagination and a dark sky you may be able to make out the bodies
and feet of the twins down and to the right of their heads. These
four stars, Sirius, Procyon, Pollux and Castor make up the Sirius
curve of bright stars arcing up from the southern horizon.
Now that you can find the Polaris, and tell the difference between
the northern and southern sky you'll never be lost again! Keep
looking up!
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Dean: Are you seeking direction in your life?
Well, the stars can help - at least they can point you north.
This week, I'll share a tip to find Polaris, the North Star, in
the evening sky. Let me show you.
Polaris is the guide of travelers, stargazers, and all-around
lovers of the night. This beacon of a star is always in the north
at the end of the Little Dipper's handle or the Little Bear's
outrageously long tail. This is Ursa Minor, a very faint constellation.
Contrary to popular opinion, the North Star is not the brightest
star in the sky. In fact it ranks about 48th in brightness and
through the city haze, it's just barely visible. So tonight at
9:30 use the more notable stars of the Big Dipper to guide you.
Follow the two stars at the end of the Big Dipper's spoon and
bingo they'll point you right to Polaris. Now that you can find
the North Star, you'll never be lost again! Keep looking up!
Please give us your comments. (Click
Here)
* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
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Dean: Hey there stargazers, I'm Dean Regas, outreach
astronomer for the Cincinnati Ob-servatory and I'll be your guest
host this month on Star Gazer. Next week I've got some bright
stuff for you in the morning and a faint, subtle light in the
evening that I'll bet most of you have never seen. Almost a thousand
years ago the Persian poet Omar Khayyam in his book of poetry
called "The Rubaiyat" wrote his most famous line, "A
jug of wine, A loaf of bread And thou beside me Singing in the
wilderness". But elsewhere in "The Rubiyait" Omar
made a poetic allusion to a mysterious "false dawn"
as opposed to the real dawn, which can only be seen at a certain
time of year. And happily next week is your best chance this year
to see the evening version of this faint light, which I'll call
"the false dusk." Next week is good because there will
be no bright Moon light to wipe out this delicate astronomical
phe-nomenon. Let me tell you all about it and what you have to
do to find it.
O.K., if we could go way out into space and look down on our solar
system with superhu-man vision, we would notice a faint yet vast
cloud of cosmic dust extending outward from the Sun in the plane
of the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and slightly beyond. And
while one would expect it would be impossible to see this super
faint cloud from Earth, neverthe-less in March, in the evening,
when the plane of our Earth's orbit is almost vertical to the
ho-rizon, we can, under the right conditions.
And these conditions require that there is no bright Moon light
out and that you must be far away from city lights because even
the faintest Moonlight or urban lighting will wipe out the extremely
delicate, ethereal glow of the false dusk. As a general rule if
you can see the Milky Way from where you're observing you'll have
a good chance to see this rare phe-nomenon next week. To see it,
look toward the west about 2 hours after sunset. It will look
like a wedge or cone-shaped dim patch of light about the same
brightness as the Milky Way and it will extend from the horizon
about one third to half way up to the zenith a ghostly, faintly
glowing rounded pyramid of light.
Now the scientific name of this phenomenon is the Zodiacal Light
and it's caused by sun-light reflected from all those trillions
and trillions of dust particles which make up the great cosmic
cloud. Additionally, if you ever see a similar oval-shaped glow
directly overhead at midnight you would be seeing the zodiacal
light's sister phenomenon called the Gegen-schein or counterglow.
And I personally wonder whether any poet ever wrote about that.
At any rate, remember that next week is your best chance to see
the evening zodiacal light, which I admit is very elusive. But
if you find it I think you'll know why it appeared in poetry centuries
before it appeared in scientific writings.
Now for something a lot brighter but not as conveniently timed,
look east before dawn next week and you'll have a chance to spot
a fading crescent Moon having a close encounter with the brightest
planet of them all. Monday March 28th about an hour before sunrise
look east and just above the horizon you should find Venus if
the clouds cooperate. Look up to its right for the 24 day old
waning crescent Moon about 30 degrees away. The Moon will get
closer to Venus each day. Tuesday the Moon will be a bit skinnier
and a lot closer.
Then things really start to pick up on Wednesday.
The Moon will be only 10 degrees away and getting skinnier. The
best day will be will be Thursday with an extremely skinny, slender
sliver of a Moon passing only 5 degrees above Venus. And keep
in mind that even though they might look close together in the
sky, that Venus is over 400 times farther away than the Moon.
So get outside before sunrise next week to see the Moon and Venus
or get out after sunset while there's no Moon, make sure you're
far from city lights and see if you can see what inspired an ancient
poet. I think you'll find it inspiring too. Keep looking up!
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Dean: Next week the Moon will pass close to Venus
in the morning sky and after sunset you have a chance to see 'the
false dusk' if you're far from city lights because there will
be no Moon to hide its faint glow.
Look west about 2 hours after sunset for a very dim cone shaped
patch of light about the brightness of the Milky Way stretching
from the horizon almost half way up in the sky. It is actually
a humongous cloud of cosmic dust extending from the sun past Mercury
and Venus and slightly beyond Earth. Astronomers call it the Zodiacal
Light and next week is your best chance to see it. Then go out
an hour before sunrise next Thursday and catch a glimpse of a
super skinny Moon just above the brightest of the planets Venus.
So see what inspired an ancient poet. I'm Dean Regas from the
Cincinnati Observatory. Keep looking up!
How did you like this episode?
Please give us your comments. (Click
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer|
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DEAN: Hey there stargazers I'm Dean Regas from
the Cincinnati Observatory and I'll be your guest host this month
on Star Gazer. I'm sure many of you have been missing our gi-ant
planet friend Jupiter since it dropped out of our evening skies
recently. Well never fear because as one giant planet leaves the
night sky another comes to take its place. And the Moon will put
on quite a show next week as she visits the Seven Sisters. Let
me show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for just after dark, any night
next week, facing east. You'll notice two bright star like objects
not far above the horizon. The brighter, slightly orangeish one
to the left is a star, Arcturus in the constellation Bootes. The
slightly dimmer, yellowish object to the right is a planet, the
famed ringed planet Saturn. If you can't tell a planet from a
star ask yourself, "Does it twinkle?" Stars will twinkle
while planets won't. Try it for yourself. Saturn is not as bright
as Arcturus and is visible only because it is reflecting light
from our Sun. Arcturus is a Sun in its own right and is over 100
times brighter than our Sun. 37 light years away, Arcturus is
much larger than our Sun, 25 times as wide as our star. Contrast
that with puny Saturn, only 75,000 miles wide, if you don't count
the rings. You'd have to line up nearly 300 Saturns side by side
to get across Arcturus. Saturn will be directly oppo-site the
Sun next week, which means it will be in the sky all night long.
Saturn is one of the best planets to look at through a small telescope
because it has some-thing none of the other planets have, a set
of visible rings. Mostly ice, the rings of Saturn add another
100 thousand miles to its apparent width. Even though they look
very impres-sive the rings are unbelievably thin and when viewed
edge on almost disappear. This last happened in September 2009
as the Earth was treated to what's called a "ring plane crossing"
as the rings were edge on to us for a brief time. The rings are
widening now and are about 8 degrees from edge on. The next ring
plane crossing is on March 23, 2025. So be sure to mark your calendars
so you don't miss it. Saturn will be in the evening sky all summer
long and will make a great target for your small telescopes.
Now turn around and face west on Monday night April 4th just after
sunset and you'll be greeted by a young one day old Moon. It should
be a great opportunity to see the effect known as "The old
Moon in the new Moon's arms". It's also called earthshine
and what you'll see is a faint greyish image of the non-sunlit
part of the Moon. This is caused by light from the Sun bouncing
off the Earth then illuminating the Moon and then reflecting back
down here for you to see,
quite a trip for a little sunbeam. It's no wonder it's tired and
doesn't do much of a job of light-ing up the Moon.
Above the Moon you'll be able to see the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades.
They are nearly gone from evening skies until they return next
fall. The Moon will pass close by them next month but by then
they will be so close to the Sun that you might not be able to
see them. So be sure to do it now. Tuesday night at the same time
the Moon will be higher and closer to the Pleiades and a bit fatter.
Then on Wednesday evening the 3 day old Moon will be about 6 degrees
below the Pleiades and this will be a beautiful sight with your
naked eye or a pair of binoculars. Then the following evening
the Moon will have gotten even fatter and higher in the sky and
will be just to the right of the bright red star Aldebaran the
eye of Taurus the bull. So Saturn and the Moon each have arranged
to bring you something to see in the sky next week. Saturn and
Arcturus will be in the eastern sky after sunset and the young
Moon of April will lead you to a farewell view of the Pleiades,
the Seven Sisters. Enjoy spring and keep looking up!
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Dean: The ringed planet Saturn is replacing Jupiter
as the big planet in the evening sky and the Moon will put on
quite a show next week as she visits the Seven Sisters. Let me
show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for just after dark, any night
next week, facing east. You'll notice two bright star like objects
not far above the horizon. The brighter one to the left is a star,
Arcturus and the slightly dimmer, yellowish object to the right
is Saturn. If you can't tell a planet from a star, ask yourself,
"Does it twinkle?". Stars will twinkle while planets
won't. Try it yourself. Turn around and face west on Monday night
April 4th just after sunset and you'll see a one day old Moon
below the Pleiades. Tuesday at the same time the Moon will be
closer to the Pleiades. Then on Wednesday the Moon will be just
below the Pleiades. I'm Dean Regas from the Cincinnati Observatory
reminding you to Keep looking up!
How did you like this episode?
Please give us your comments. (Click
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
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