{"id":2113,"date":"2021-02-20T17:31:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-20T17:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2113"},"modified":"2021-02-20T17:32:57","modified_gmt":"2021-02-20T17:32:57","slug":"astrocal-for-march-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2113","title":{"rendered":"AstroCal for March 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We start this month with the planets visible in the morning sky.\u00a0 <\/span>Mercury, Jupiter, <\/b>and <\/span>Saturn <\/b>can be seen low in the ESE forty minutes before sunrise.\u00a0 Mercury will drop lower each day and be lost in the <\/span>Sun\u2019s <\/b>glare by mid-month.\u00a0 The two <\/span>Gas Giants<\/b> will climb higher each day.\u00a0 Since their historic close encounter on December 21, 2020, they have continued to drift apart.\u00a0 The gap between them will increase from 8.2 degrees on Mar 1 to 11.8 degrees on Mar 31.\u00a0 They will continue distancing themselves from each other until 2030 when they will appear on opposite sides of the sky.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Mars<\/b> can be found high in the west all month long.\u00a0 It will pass 3 degrees south of <\/span>The Pleiades <\/b>star cluster on Mar 4 and 7 degrees of the star <\/span>Aldebaran <\/b>in <\/span>Taurus the Bull<\/b> on Mar 20.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mars continues to put more distance between itself and the <\/span>Earth<\/b>, starting the month 1.48 <\/span>astronomical units (AU) <\/b>away,\u00a0 increasing to 1.72 AU by the end of the month.\u00a0 An AU is a short-hand way of expressing the vast distances between objects in the <\/span>Solar System<\/b>.\u00a0 One AU equals the average distance between the centers of the <\/span>Earth <\/b>and <\/span>Sun <\/b>(93 million miles).\u00a0 This translates to the Earth-Mars distances on Mar 1 as 137 million miles and Mar 31 as 160 million miles.\u00a0 This month\u2019s viewing challenge involves <\/span>Uranus<\/b>:\u00a0 using binoculars or a small telescope, it can be seen 20 degrees to the lower right of Mars in early March.\u00a0 The gap will grow to 35 degrees by the end of the month.\u00a0 <\/span>Venus<\/b> will not be visible this month as it passes 1.3 degrees south of the Sun on March 26 during a period called <\/span>superior conjunction.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A handy guide to measuring astronomical degrees can be found at arm\u2019s length:\u00a0 One finger held up at arm\u2019s length covers about one degree.\u00a0 Three fingers resembling the Boy Scout salute equals 5 degrees.\u00a0 A closed fist covers about 10 degrees from thumb to little finger.\u00a0 The Texas \u2018hook \u2018em horns\u2019 salute is typically 15 degrees and the \u2018surfer\u2019 greeting with only the thumb and pinky finger extended outward from a closed fist measures about 25 degrees.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Clear March nights will offer stunning views of <\/span>Orion the Hunter <\/b>including the bright blue star <\/span>Rigel<\/b> marking his knee and giant red <\/span>Betelgeuse <\/b>in his shoulder.\u00a0 Following the three stars of Orion\u2019s <\/span>Belt<\/b> to the left, one will easily spot the brightest star we can see in the northern hemisphere:\u00a0 <\/span>Sirius the Dog Star<\/b> located in <\/span>Canis Major, the Big Dog.\u00a0 <\/b>Rigel and Betelgeuse are also two of the top five brightest stars seen in this hemisphere.\u00a0 Following the Belt in the opposite direction will point your eyes to The Pleiades star cluster in Taurus the Bull.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0During the first two weeks of March, it may be possible to see <\/span>Zodiacal Light <\/b>in the west just after the end of evening twilight.\u00a0 The Zodiacal Light is a faint glow of interplanetary dust along the <\/span>ecliptic plane<\/b> of the solar system.\u00a0 Picture the planets sitting on a large plate with the Sun at the center – the plate itself would represent the ecliptic plane.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With the <\/span>Full Moon<\/b> occuring at 2:48 p.m. EST on Sunday Mar 28, the final week of the month will be bright enough for snowshoeing and cross country skiing as long as the snow cover lasts.\u00a0 Other notable Lunar events include the <\/span>New Moon <\/b>on Mar 13, the <\/span>First Crescent <\/b>on Mar 14 (always a viewing challenge low in the western sky right after sunset), the <\/span>First Quarter <\/b>Mar 21.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The <\/span>Vernal Equinox<\/b> marking the first official day of spring takes place on March 20 at 5:37 a.m. EDT.\u00a0 (Note the transition from EST to EDT – <\/span>Daylight Saving Time <\/b>begins at 2:00 a.m<\/span>. on March 14 this year and ends on November 7).\u00a0 The Equinox occurs when the vertical ray of the sun (the point where the sun would appear straight over head) crosses the Earth\u2019s <\/span>Equator<\/b>.\u00a0 The Earth\u2019s axis tilts 23.5 degrees from the aforementioned elliptical plane of the Solar System.\u00a0 In the higher latitudes, this results in the changes that occur in the length of night and daylight hours over the course of the year.\u00a0 At the Equator, there is always 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.\u00a0 The Equinox (both spring and fall) are the only times of the year when there is \u2018equal night\u2019 (and daylight) everywhere on the planet.\u00a0 By the <\/span>Summer Solstice <\/b>on June 20, 2021, the northern parts of the United States will be experiencing 17 hours of daylight and only 7 hours of darkness.\u00a0 The <\/span>North <\/b>and <\/span>South Poles, <\/b>by contrast, swing from 0 hours of daylight to 24 hours between June 20 and December 21 each year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Compiled by Ken Raisanen of WOAS-FM – information provided by <\/span>Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar<\/span><\/i>, Michigan State University.\u00a0 More information can be found on the their website at <\/span>http:\/\/abramsplanetarium.org\/<\/span><\/a> or on Twitter at <\/span>http:\/\/twitter.com\/AbramsSkyNotes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We start this month with the planets visible in the morning sky.\u00a0 Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn can be seen low in the ESE forty minutes before sunrise.\u00a0 Mercury will drop lower each day and be lost in the Sun\u2019s glare by mid-month.\u00a0 The two Gas Giants will climb higher each day.\u00a0 Since their historic close […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2114,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113\/revisions\/2114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}