WEEKLY SKYWATCH

By Jarrett DuBois

Down to Earth Astronomy

March 14 - 20 , 2010

Planets – Saturn is in the southeastern sky during mid-evening.

Mars is in the southern sky during mid-evening.

Moon – New Moon: 3/15.

Comets - None visible with the unaided eye.

Deep Space – The Pleaides star cluster, M45, will be in the southwestern sky during the mid-evening hours.

Meteor Showers – There is one minor meteor shower this week. The Eta Virginids peaks on 3/18-19.

Keep looking up. You never know what you'll observe and enjoy in the night sky!

March evenings are full of celestial gems for observers and solar system objects will top the list of items to enjoy. Spring returns to the northern hemisphere on March 20^th , and that date also marks the time for a beautiful event in our night sky.

            There are three planets that can be viewed in the evening skies during this month. Ruddy Mars will be high in the southeastern sky at the begining of the month. Mars joins up with the moon on 3/24-25 for a couple of great close encounters. On the 24^th Mars will be above and to the left of the moon. On the following night, Mars will be above and to the right of the moon. The “Evening Star”, Venus will be in the western sky during evening twilight. Venus teams up with the crescent moon on March 16 when it will be to the left of moon just after sunset. Saturn will be rising in the eastern sky late in the evening . Saturn will be above and to the left of the moon on March 1. Saturn reaches opposition this month on 3/21. Opposition is the term used when a planet rises in the east as the sun sets in the west.

............ When viewed through binoculars, observers will be able to enjoy the dipper-like appearance of the star cluster and also enjoy mountains, craters and plains on the moon's surface.The featured object of the night sky this month is the Pleaides star cluster and its close encounter with the moon on 3/20.

Sun Comets

Throughout the history of mankind, some of the most awe-inspiring visions in the sky have been comets. In ancient times, comets were considered to be visiting gods or messengers foretelling the rise or fall kingdoms. In recent times, comets tell a different story and provide scientists with a wealth of information about the solar system. New instrumentation on board satellites allows professional and amateur astronomers to search for and find comets that approach the sun.

            The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a satellite that has been studying the sun since its launch in 1995. With the instrumentation on board, SOHO scientists have been able to gather a tremendous amount of data on our sun. One of the side benefits to observing the sun and its many phenomena has been the discovery of over 300 sungrazer comets. Earlier observations of the sun that began with satellites launched in 1979 showed small comets that plunged into the sun or passed too close to survive the heat and gravitation created by the sun. The SOHO satellite is able to observe the sun 24 hours a day because it is positioned at a Lagrange point, a location in space about one million miles from Earth where the gravity of Earth and the sun is in balance. The earlier satellites that studied the sun were in Earth orbits which dramatically cut down on their observation of the sun. These earlier satellites detected numerous sungrazers during their operational lifetime.

            NASA scientists and astronomers are not the only ones able to can use the SOHO spacecraft to search for and find sungrazer comets. By utilizing the internet, amateurs  have the opportunity to study real time images and movies sent back by the SOHO instrumentation. There have been many sungrazers discovered by amateurs. The address for the SOHO website is http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov where you will find links for all the instrumentation on-board SOHO. Sungrazer comet hunters will be interested in the Real-Time Images link. This link will bring you to another page that shows images from the different pictures of the sun taken by SOHO. Comet hunters will want to review the images from the LASCO C2 and LASCO C3 instrumentation and also the real time movie links that are available in different internet formats. Now there is even an app for checking the sun's activity called Solar Monitor. It is easy to use and provides lots of data on the sun's daily output and all the images from the SOHO spacecraft in various wavelengths.

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