I hope that you were able to see something exciting or interesting during February. There were a few cloud free nights where I was able to easily see Venus, Mars, a few constellations, and of course the Moon. I was also able to watch Jupiter rise over the mountains and high into the sky before fading from view due to the luminosity of the Sun. I was also able to look at the Sun (with proper filters and eye protection of course) but was unable to detect any sunspots.
March usually brings slightly warmer weather. Hopefully it will bring clearer skies so we can get outside to look at the stars! I'm getting anxious to get the telescope out or even the binoculars.
Venus will shine brightly again this month before sunset. However, it will disappear from our view by month's end. On the first night of March, Venus will again be joined by the Moon. Mars will also join the duo as it hasn't left Venus' side for a few months. As the month goes on, you will notice Venus falling closer to the western horizon. By the end of the month, Venus will switch from the "evening star" to the "morning star". Throughout the month, the phases of Venus will change dramatically while using binoculars and even more so with a telescope.
Mercury will do the opposite of Venus this month and be visible in the morning sky shortly before sunrise. By the end of the month, Mercury will be visible after sunset for a short time. It might be hard to see because it is found closer to the Sun and will soon slip below the horizon. Mercury will offer its best views in April for 2017, so stay tuned!
As mentioned, Mars will be found close to Venus during the first part of the month. It can easily be found from its reddish-orange glow. Mars will remain visible all month so be sure to give it some attention.
Uranus will also be found close to Mars during the first part of the month. You should be able to see it if you have a pair of binoculars. By the end of the month however, Uranus will be lost in the twilight and will not return to the sky until late spring. When it does return, it will be found in the morning sky.
Jupiter is getting close to opposition, which means it will offer great views with the naked eye, binoculars, and telescopes. Jupiter will rise close to 9 early in the month but by months end, it will poke above the eastern horizon just after the Sun sets in the west. Don't forget to give Jupiter a look with a pair of binoculars to reveal the Galilean moons.
Saturn rises in the early morning hours around 2:30. For those that are up early enough, or want to wake up to view Saturn, it will bring great views through binoculars and telescopes. It will be found near the red super giant, Antares, in the constellation Scorpius. This constellation is found in a bright part of the Milky Way, so if you look at Saturn through binoculars or a telescope, be prepared for a nice starry background.
On the 4th, the Moon will occult (pass in front of) the star Aldebaran. This will begin around 8 Mountain Time. Binoculars will offer great views, but telescopes will offer the best view of this event only because of the steady platform that telescopes usually have.
Last month, I dropped the ball and forgot to mention a partial lunar eclipse and also a comet that could have been viewed through binoculars. To redeem myself, I am going to be sure to mention the comets that you can see this month! The comet, named 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak will be visible during the end of the month. It will offer it's best views on the evening of the 27th, so be sure to look! It will be found near Ursa Major (The Big Dipper). Comets are pretty unpredictable as far as their brightness goes. It might get bright enough to see with your naked eyes, but you will likely need a pair of binoculars.
The other comet, named PANSTARRS (C/2015 ER61), is visible with a pair of binoculars. This one can be seen in the early part of the month and will be found in the constellation of Sagittarius.
When looking for comets through binoculars, they will usually appear as a "fuzzy blob". You may have to scan the sky to find them. I have a pair of astronomical binoculars, but you don't need a pair that large. When I talk about using binoculars, I have the 7x50 or 10x50 size in mind. These are fairly small and easy to hold steady, and usually inexpensive.
For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, early spring brings the best chance of viewing the Zodiacal Light. This is caused by the tiny dust particles in the inner solar system reflecting the sunlight as the Sun sets. You will want to be somewhere dark and a moonless sky is the best time to see it. This occurs between March 14-28 this year. I have never seen this but you can bet I am going to try this year!
As a final treat this month, you can also try to see Vesta, an asteroid. This can be found using a pair of binoculars. If you can find the orange-ish star, Pollux in the constellation of Gemini, you should have no trouble finding Vesta. It will be found to the lower right and will appear as a "star" in your field of view. To see if you have found it, check back every couple of nights and you should notice that it has moved. It will be visible all month.
Here is the breakdown for the month of March:
March 1-8: Comet PANSTARRS near Sagittarius
March 4: The Moon will occult Aldebaran around 8 pm Mountain Time
March 12: Full Moon
March 14-28: Look for the Zodiacal Light in the West after sunset
March 16-31: Comet 41P near Ursa Major
March 27: New Moon
There are quite a few notable events that happened during the month of March. Many of them include space probes flying by planets, such as Voyager 1 doing a flyby of Jupiter on March 5th, 1979; Mariner 10 doing a flyby of Mercury on the 29th in 1974 and again on the 16th in 1975. More recently though, the Messenger spacecraft entered the orbit of Mercury on March 18th, 2011.
Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, and the only moon in the solar system known to have a dense atmosphere, was discovered on March 25th, 1655 by Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch astronomer. Uranus was also discovered this month on the 13th in 1781 by William Herschel, a British astronomer. Nearly 200 years later, the rings of Uranus were discovered by three astronomers working together, James Elliot, Edward Dunham, and Jessica Mink, at the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. This happened on March 10th, 1977.
Uranus' rings were discovered to only go part way around the planet instead of all the way around like the other gas giants of our solar system. Yes, all the gas giants have rings, but none are as notable or majestic as Saturn's. Uranus is also the only planet that spins on its side due to a great collision during the forming of the solar system.
The most notable moment from history, in my opinion, was the birth of Albert Einstein on March 14th, 1879. One of his most famous equations, that nearly everyone has heard of, is E = m*c^2, where E is the energy, m is the mass of an object, and c is the speed of light. This equation shows that to speed up a heavy object, such as a spacecraft, to the speed of light, you will need a lot of energy. But the faster the object goes, the more massive it will become and the more energy that is required to continue to maintain or increase the speed of the object.
Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves which were recently discovered and confirmed in February 2016. A gravitational wave occurs when a massive body in space gets disturbed, such as a black hole, or when two black holes merge. This disruption causes an energy wave, such as a shock wave here on Earth, that travels through space. A gravitational wave will appear like the ripples on water when you throw a rock in a lake.
There are many ideas in science that can't be proven, or disproved until technology can catch up to the theories. That's why people thought that the Earth was flat and that everything revolved around it. What mysteries will be solved or proven in the next 5 years? 10 years? Only time will tell!
Not even 2 full days after completing this post, NASA announced a major find! Seven Earth-like planets were discovered orbiting a red dwarf star approximately 40 light years away. Three of the seven planets are in the habitable zone, not too close, nor too far away from the parent star. All seven planets could potentially have liquid water on them, one of the building blocks of life, as we humans see it.
Here is a short video clip and article about the discovery: TRAPPIST-1
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