Moon:
New Moon: March 3.
Per Megastar, the moon (illuminated 20%) sets at 10:52pm on the night of the Gaze (Mar 7). Saturn (~25 degrees away from the moon) and Jupiter should be observable until then. [ Per the "Planets202" program: no Jovian moons or their shadows pass over Jupiter's disk that night, but the Great Red Spot (GRS) appears bout 7:15pm, crosses the planet's meridan about 9:00pm, and disappears about 10:42pm ]
Planets:
Mercury: Not visible.
Venus: 0.05 degree North of Uranus on March 28, before sunrise, low in the south east. Closest conjunction of major planets this year, and the closest observable conjunction of 2 planets since 1990!.
Thru an 8" F10 scope with a 26mm 52 AFOV eyepiece, both planets will be in the field of view. Venus probably will not reveal it's shapely figure to the 26mm, so try a 7mm 82 AFOV (I'm sure everybody has one in their top drawer). This higher power, wide field eyepiece will still have both planets in it's 17' TFOV. The 2 planets draw within 3' of each other, but after sunrise. They will be about 7' apart at 5:30 am.
Uranus was in conjunction in February, so both it and Venus are relatively far from the Earth at this time. Uranus will subtend 3.4" and Venus 14", so it will be diffuclut to detect the 79% illumination of Venus. Also, the crescent moon will be about 12 degrees away, so we won't have a dark, contrasty sky to work with. If the illuminated shape of Venus is detectable, it should give a real feeling of "depth" to the all-to-often 2-D sky.
(3-9-03 update: 30 minutes before sunrise, Venus and Uranus will be only about 11 degrees above the horizon when viewed from Asheville. Good luck trying to pick out Venus's shape and Uranus's magnitude 5.9 light thru that low atmosphere and the ever brightening sky! Venus's gibbous shape will probably be too distorted by all that atmosphere to detect.)
Mars: Passes between the Lagoon Nebula (M8) and Trifid Nebula (M20) on March 5 & 6.
Saturn: Getting dimmer, but still a good view. Looks quite 3-D at this time due to east quadrature on March 13 (shadow of planet's disk is cast to the side, onto it's rings) .
Jupiter: Getting dimmer, but still a good view.
Asteroids: Vesta is mag 6.4 when March rolls in, peaks at mag 5.9 on March 27, and is at mag 6.4 by the end of April. So look for it naked-eye at the end of March! It won't be as bright again until May 2007.Vesta is the second largest asteroid (530 km) this side of the Kuiper Belt, but is by far the brightest due to it's 42% albedo (reflectance). Ceres is the largest (933 km), but has an albedo of only 11% and reaches only mag 7. See April S&T, p102 for a finder chart.
Deep Sky Objects (DSO's):
NGC 2244 (open cluster) in Monoceras. Associated with the large but faint "Rosette Nebula".
R Leporis (Hind's Crimson Star), a Mira-type variable with a 427 day period. At mag 10 at this time, you'll need a larger telescope to bring out the color. One of the reddest stars we can see. Catch it early in the evening.
NGC1990 (reflection nebula) with associated "Bok Globules". Supposedly an 8" or 10" scope at 250x will reveal the globules. Also, NGC1990 is surrounded by "Herbig-Haro", or "H-H", bi-polar jets! These appear as 14th mag fuzzy stars, so be real sweet to the folks with the big scopes this month. Catch it early in the evening. (See S&T, Feb, p101)
Highlights:
Spring Equinox is March 21.
March 5 is the first day of year 1424 A.H. in the Muslim calendar. The day begins at sunset on March 4, with the young moon expected to be seen the following morning.
See "Venus" & "Vesta" above.
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The Big Picture:
Take a look at an all-sky map that has the Messier objects on it:
6 hr R.A. (passes overhead on winter evenings; in the west on March evenings): OPEN CLUSTERS in the sky north to south (Auriga to Pupis).
12 hr R.A. (passes overhead on spring evenings; in the east on March evenings): GALAXIES in the sky north to south (Ursa Major to Virgo).
18 hr R.A. (passes overhead on summer evenings; in eastern sky in early morning hours in March): GLOBULR CLUSTERS in the sky north to south (Cygnus to Saggitarius).
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Club Stargaze:
The March stargaze is Friday, March 7, 2003. You can check the Yahoo group for AstroAsheville (or call Tim Barnwell @ 251-0040 or John Chappell @ 251-1933 x17 (before 5:00) or 667-9268 (after 5:00)) for a go/no-go decision and to verify location.
Blue Ridge Parkway Information Line is 828-298-0398 and go to Road Conditions on the menu.
Club Meeting:
The club meeting is the first Thursday of every month, at 6 p.m. at Sim’s Group located at
230 Short Coxe Ave., Asheville, NC.
Happy Starwatching! Dress Warm!
(Much of the above info derived from Sky & Telescope, Ottewell's Astronomical Calendar, Megastar 5.0, the ol' Miller Planesphere, and a little (very little) common sense.)
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Archived Monthly Sky 2002: Feb Mar Apr May June July Oct Nov Dec