Download Mon Mar 6, 2017 LEO`S RETURN March, they say, comes in like a

Mon Mar 6, 2017
LEO'S RETURN
March, they say, comes in like a lion. This is meant to refer to the changeable weather of the new month, as cold winter
air meets the warm breezes of spring. But there’s also an astronomical connection. Look south this evening and there
you will find the bright stars of winter. Chief among them is Orion the Hunter. Along with him are the constellations
Taurus the Bull, the Big and Little Dogs, Auriga the Charioteer, and the Gemini, all marked by bright stars. Now look
toward the east. Not much there. But toward the eastern horizon, you'll find another star called Regulus, and it
represents the heart of the constellation Leo the Lion. There are several other stars nearby which, with Regulus, form
the outline of a backwards question mark in the sky – the lion’s head and mane. Leo is the first of our springtime
constellations. The Lion always comes into our eastern evening sky when March begins.
Tue Mar 7, 2017
CANOPUS
If you're outside after sunset tonight, or on any clear evening this month, you should notice a bright star-like object low
in the southern sky. It hovers there near the horizon, and at first you might think it was an airplane's landing light. If
you've been watching too much TV, you might even think it was a UFO. This particular UFO is easy to identify - It's the
star Canopus, second brightest star of the night sky. Canopus, an important star for navigators, is in the constellation of
Carina the keel; it marks the rudder of the famous mythological ship Argo, which carried Jason and his crew in search of
the Golden Fleece. Folks in the Northern U.S. cannot see this star - the earth blocks it from view. Only at southerly
latitudes like Florida can Canopus be seen. When Canopus is near the horizon, the earth's thick atmosphere will even
make the star seem to change color, brightness, and shape.
Wed Mar 8, 2017
MOON IN CANCER
Tonight the waxing gibbous moon shines among the stars of the constellation Cancer the Crab. Bright moonlight makes
it hard to see the stars, but in the case of Cancer, there really are no bright stars to see. An old Greek myth explains why.
The great hero Hercules was in a fight with the Lernean Hydra, a multi-headed swamp monster. The constellation of the
hydra is well below the moon tonight. Every time Hercules cut off a head, another head would grow in its place. And all
the while he was lopping off heads, something was nipping him on the heel. It was a little crab, sent by his stepmother
Hera, to distract Hercules. Hercules was too busy to notice what was pinching him; he simply picked up his foot,
stomped down on the hapless crustacean, and poor Cancer was crabmeat. Because the crab had bravely attacked
Hercules, Hera rewarded him by making him a constellation. But because he had failed, she made the stars of Cancer
very faint.
Thu Mar 9, 2017
LIGHT SPEED ZOOM OUT
Traveling at the speed of light, 186,000 miles a second, is impossible. Too bad. The moon is only a quarter of a million
miles away. At the speed of light, you could get there in less than a second and a half. The light from the sun takes eight
minutes to travel the 93 million mile distance to earth. Pluto is about four and a half light hours away. Frozen comets at
the edge of our solar system, perhaps a trillion miles out, are nearly ten weeks away at speed-of-light travel. After that
we come to the star Alpha Centauri, a little over four light years distant – that’s 25 trillion miles. The farthest stars in our
Milky Way are over a hundred thousand light years away – that’s about 600 thousand trillion miles - and the nearest big
galaxy, Andromeda, is maybe fifteen million trillion miles out – 2 and a half million light years. And the most remote
quasars are over 12 billion light years away – 90 billion trillion miles – far out!
Fri Mar 10, 2017
FULL MOON ON MARCH 12
The moon is full this weekend. To colonial Americans, March’s full moon was called the sap moon, a time when the sap
of the maple tree was tapped and sugared down for its syrup. They also called it the crow moon, the Chaste moon or the
Lenten moon - named for the Christian season of Lent. The Celts call this the Big Winds moon, same as the Choctaw
Indians. To the Algonquin Indians it is either the catching fish moon or the crust moon, because frequent thawing and
refreezing of snow on the ground formed an icy crust. It’s called the worm moon by the Panamint Indians of California,
in honor of the inchworm who according to legend, used the light of the full moon to climb to the mountaintop and
rescue the sons of Chief Father of Two Boys Born in One Day. To the San Juan peoples it is the lizard moon; to the
Omaha, it’s the Little Frog Moon. But the Sioux and the Arapaho call this the moon when the buffalo cows drop their
calves.