Spring

The most important thing about this week must be on Sunday which is the first day of spring, the equinox occurs at 9:32 am when the axis of the earth is exactly perpendicular to the ecliptic, in English the orbital plane, and by 9:33 it will be tentatively pointing toward the Sun again. And because we’re right on top of the vernal equinox the days are lengthening faster now than at any other time of the year. The rate of change will peak on the 21st then slow down to midsummer’s day when it stops dead and reverses when we begin the inexorable plunge to mid winter. But that’s another 3 months yet.

We may be able to just swing all 5 naked eye planets this week, but I warn you now it’s iffy and it means very little sleep. Mercury sets at 6:30 just behind the sun, but it may be visible in binoculars with a clear eastern horizon over the sea, so this is really for St Agnes and Bryher folk. Though you may get a view between Porth Looe and the golf club on St Mary’s. But if you can’t see Mercury you won’t be able to miss Venus if the conditions are right, it sets around 7:30 and is a very bright -3.9. Tonight the two inner planets will be accompanied by a very young moon, which reminds me it was a month ago last night that I photographed the 3 of them from the window of a jet, over Northern France.

Mars is still very much with us, now sadly faded to magnitude –0.2, it shines very high in the southeast at dusk and is due South by 8:30. It's in Cancer, below Pollux and Castor at nightfall and left of them later in the evening.

Saturn that most buoyant of planets, it being the only one that will in water float admittedly in a bath if heroic proportions. The ringed planet is at opposition on the 21st which means it rises as the sun sets and vice versa. And it will be due South at about 12:30, this week it setting at about 6:30 am just as Jupiter rises. The giant planet has passed from behind the sun and is setting around now before the sun at 4pm, which we can’t see. But it’s back in the late dawn sky just before the sun so it may be visible briefly. But by the 31st it’s up almost an hour before the sun so it may best to wait. We won’t see it again before midnight until early July, but by September it will rise around 8 and will be dominating the southern sky throughout the autumn and early winter, but let’s get the summer out of the way first.

If you’re champing at the bit to find Aires, as I’m sure most of you are. The moon is just off new at the moment and on Thursday at nightfall you’ll find it in the west at Sunset just after Venus has retired for the night in Aries, there’s a guide of on the blog. Now who am I to pass judgement on the ancient Greeks, though it’s not as if they can sue or anything, but they must have been on something pretty strong to be able to see a ram in that little pile of nondescript stars.

On the 20th the moon a little further up occults the Pleiades again and on Sunday it’s a little to the North of Taurus the bull, which to be fair is quite like a bulls head, with his bright baleful eye Aldebaran.

And that was your night sky for the week ending on the 4th anniversary The Federal Reserve discontinuing publishing the M3 money supply figures.

The Inter Regnum

Vesta find it if you can.

Mars is gibbous now; it's more than a month past opposition. The north polar cap (bottom) remains big and bright despite the advance of spring in the Martian northern hemisphere. At center-left is dark Syrtis Major; at upper right are dark Sinus Sabaeus and Sinus Meridiani. At top, the Hellas region is slightly bright.

The Winter Triangle

Now you may claim and with some justification that it’s not summer yet and technically you could be right. But and it’s a big but, if you get up early enough in the pre dawn sky the summer constellations have arrived, ready to shove Orion, Gemini and Taurus unceremoniously out of the way. If for reasons of your own your up an hour before sunrise, in the twilit dawn sky you’ll see Scorpio and Sagittarius teapot, itching to reassert themselves; and Sagittarius is quite easy to spot, it looks a lot more like a teapot than an archer. If you look in the next couple of days, you’ll see them in the Southeast along with a rapidly ageing moon. There’s a guide on the blog for you anyway. And here it is.



But the husky hag of early darkness in her robes of snowy grey is still with us for a while yet; quite lyrical that but sadly not mine, so we still have the winter triangle in the southern sky. Comprising of the red giant Betelgeuse on Orion’s right shoulder with Procyon a little up and to the left with down below Sirius, the brightest of the stars, giving us the third point. I know I mention the winter triangle quite a lot but this time I have a lovely picture for you on the blog.

Tomorrow Mars stops its retrograde motion and starts to move east again against the background of the stars. If as many of you believe the Scilly is at the centre of the universe this retrograde motion is difficult to explain, and involves the planets doing elaborate little pirouettes around their main orbit. But it all falls into place if you bite the bullet and accept the sun as the centre of the Solar System it all falls nicely into place, and we can thank good old Copernicus for working it out and Newton for telling us how.

As for the planets, only 3 again this week, Jupiter and Mercury are immersed in sunlight, in fact Jupiter is on the other side of the sun at its most distant at the moment.

But Venus is very much back with us at a very bright magnitude –3.9 the planet of love is slowly emerging from the sunset. Look for it due west just above the horizon about 30 minutes after sundown. Venus will gradually creep up into better twilight visibility for the next three months. Venus isn’t a very nice place when all’s said and done. It has a dense atmosphere of CO2 which traps most of the suns heat, there’s a little water there which will be in the form of superheated steam, the surface temperature is hot enough for rivers of molten lead, not that there are any, that’s just how hot it is. Global warming gone mad, so take you telly of standby and switch off the radio, now.

A much dimmer Mars, now faded to magnitude –0.4, shines very high in the east at dusk and toward the south by around 9 p.m. It's in Cancer, below Pollux and Castor after dusk and left of them later in the evening. So if you’re unfortunate to be born is Cancer with Mars right still retrograde then you’re in for a hell of a time, allegedly.

Saturn not overly bright, in western Virgo rises in the east in twilight and shines higher in the southeast later in the evening, and stands highest in the south around 1 a.m. It’s a lot dimmer than it could be because the rings are still almost flat on to us. The best way to find it is to look on the APL star map for Scilly on the blog. If you can find it, it has a yellowish glow and won’t twinkle too much.

And that was your night’s sky for the week ending on the 15th anniversary of the state of Mississippi formally ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment, and becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. A mere 130 years after most of the others.

The Night Sky March 2010

The Night Sky March 2010

The Flatulence of Goats

At this time of year, Orion stands at his highest in the south after dusk. His top-left star is bright, red Betelgeuse, a bloated giant star nearing the end of its life. It’s consumed most of its hydrogen and turned it to helium, and it will keep on moving up the periodic table until it gets to iron, if its big enough, when it’s energy gone it will collapse on itself and turn into a super dense white dwarf. If it was a little bigger, well quite a lot bigger, like Mr Creosote, the collapse would trigger an enormous explosion and form a super nova, but its too small so it won’t. That’s a sad little story if I ever heard one, but don’t get to maudlin it will still be up there glowing red and podgy long after we’re all gone. Anyway I’m banging on about it because Betelgeuse, if you’ve forgotten forms part of the Winter Triangle (which is almost equilateral) with Procyon to its left and bright white Sirius below them both.

Tonight Castor and Pollux the twins in Gemini are left of the Moon, there’s a guide on the blog. And tomorrow the bright, fiery "star" near the gibbous Moon is Mars. A telescope reveals that Mars too is becoming gibbous; it's now nearly a month past opposition.

On Friday the Moon, Mars, Pollux, and Castor form a long, ragged across the Southern sky. And on Saturday, the "star" over the Moon is Regulus, as seen above.

As for the planets we only really have two this week, Mercury as usual is lost in the glow of the sun. Venus a very bright -3.9 is barely emerging from deep in the sunset. Look for it just above the west-southwest horizon about 20 minutes after sundown. Despite its brightness it won’t show well being so close to the setting sun.

Mars, still bright, but dimming now, shines high in the east at dusk and is highest in the south around 10 p.m. It's in Cancer, below Pollux and Castor after dark

Jupiter is hidden behind the glare of the Sun, it will be while now until it remerges in the dawn sky in the spring.

Saturn’s not overly bright rises in the east around 8 p.m. and stands highest in the south around after midnight

Now I must confess to a little misinformation last week, when I told you I’d missed the close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter last Tuesday evening. I recorded on Monday because I was travelling on Tuesday and assumed I’d miss it. Well as luck would have it, I had a starboard window seat on the plane looking west and as the sun set over northern France at 37,000 feet, though I have to take the pilots word for that, both planets were showing well beneath the tiny sickle moon. It was quite impressive more for the deep blue sky you get 8,000 feet higher than Everest; I’ve put an enhanced photo on the blog

Venus and Jupiter setting over France on the 16th Feb.

And that was your Scilly Stars for the week ending on the 77th anniversary of King Kong opening at New York's Radio City Music Hall.