Email this article

Saturn Shines

By Lewis McCool �2010

MOON PHASES

Last quarter: March 7, 8:42 a.m.

New: March 15, 3:01 p.m.

First quarter: March 23, 5:00 a.m.

Full: March 29, 8:25 p.m. (Crust or Worm Moon)

IN HISTORY

March 4-5, 1979 – U.S. Voyager 1 craft discovers Jupiter’s ring and flew past the planet.

March 9, 1934 – Birth date of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first person to orbit Earth. He died March 27, 1968, when his MiG-15 jet crashed during a training mission.

March 13, 1855 – Birth date of Percival Lowell, American astronomer who founded (in 1894) and directed an observatory near Flagstaff, Ariz.

March 13, 1781 – British astronomer William Herschel discovers the seventh planet, Uranus.

March 14, 1879 – Birth date of physicist Albert Einstein.

March 16, 1926 – Working in New Mexico, American engineer Robert Goddard launches first liquid-fuel rocket. It reached an altitude of about 40 feet.

March 17, 1930 – Birth date of Apollo 15 astronaut and moonwalker James Irwin.

March 18, 1965 – Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov takes the first “space walk.”

March 23, 1912 – Birth date of German and American rocketeer Wernher von Braun. He directed the development of the Saturn V rockets that carried U.S. astronauts to the moon.

Spring is almost upon us. The nights are getting warmer, though shorter.

After mid-March, you'll have to wait an extra hour for evening stargazing. Like it or not, daylight saving time begins Sunday, March 14.

George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealand postal clerk, astronomer and entomologist, is credited with first proposing the modern version of daylight saving time (in 1895). He wanted extra daylight in the evening to collect insects after his day job, but didn't get it. He was ridiculed instead.

Human manipulation aside, day and night will be essentially equal on the 20th as spring arrives with the equinox at 11:32 a.m.

This is the best time of the year to observe Saturn. It is at opposition and closest to Earth in its orbit on March 21, rising about sunset and setting about sunrise. It can be found in Virgo, shining at magnitude 0.6. The planet's glorious rings are tilted just 3 degrees as seen from our vantage point, so details such as the Cassini Division will be difficult or impossible to detect in amateur scopes.

Mars was at its best for the year in January, but it still remains a worthy target though having lost a bit of its glory. It continues to fade throughout the month, so catch it sooner rather than later. It starts the month shining at magnitude minus 0.6 (brighter than Saturn) but ends March at 0.2. Look for it in Cancer, well up in the southern sky after dark, not far from the Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux.

As one astute local observer pointed out recently via e-mail, Mars has been moving westward (retrograde) against the background of stars in Cancer nightly since December. Normally the outer planets move eastward (right to left), but as Earth, in its shorter orbit, catches up and passes one, the planet's apparent motion changes for awhile. As our orbital dance continues, Mars becomes stationary on the 11th and then resumes normal apparent motion.

Mars reaches aphelion (farthest from the sun in its orbit) on March 31 when it will be nearly 156 million miles from our home star. Coincidentally, Earth and Mars will be separated by just about the same distance as Earth and sun, 1 astronomical unit or about 93 million miles. Back in January when Mars and Earth were closest this year, they were about 62 million miles apart.

Giant Jupiter is hidden in the sun's glare this month, but Venus can be seen near the western horizon just after sunset. At magnitude minus 3.9 it can be seen in bright twilight. With help from binoculars, you might be able to spot a 1-day-old crescent moon just to the right of Venus on the 16th.

Late in the month, Mercury, magnitude minus 1, should be visible below Venus, climbing toward Venus each evening.

For a telescopic challenge, see if you can locate the brightest asteroid, Vesta. It was discovered March 28, 1807, by German physician and astronomer Heinrich W. Olbers.

In Leo, it opens the month at magnitude 6.2 but fades to 6.8 by month's end. Look for it moving nightly from near the magnitude 2 star Algieba toward magnitude 3 Epsilon Leonis in the sickle (or backward question mark) asterism.