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MARCH 2013 ASTRONOMY From the Trackman Planetarium at Joliet Junior College ¶ Jupiter is the only major planet visible in the evening sky during March. Saturn is working its way into the evening sky, but the change of time pushes back Saturn’s rising time until 11 pm. By the end of March, Saturn will be rising at 9:30. Venus and Mars are too close to the sun to be observed. Venus crosses behind the sun on March 26th. Mercury crosses in front of the sun on March 3rd and will continue orbiting west until it reaches its maximum western distance from the sun on March 31st. The sun will cross in front of Mars in early April. ¶ The sun sets at 6:50 pm at mid-month so good viewing doesn’t start until 7:30 pm. Orion is now in the western sky after dark. The two bright stars directly overhead are Castor and Polux which mark the heads of the Gemini twins. To the left of Gemini is Cancer. The stars in Cancer are too dim to be seen in anything but very dark skies, but a binocular search through Cancer will find the Beehive star cluster. Next to Cancer is Leo the Lion. The red star, Regulas, marks Leo’s chin and above Leo is a summer favorite - the Big Dipper. If you can see the two stars that make up the middle star of the Big Dipper’s handle, you have good eyesight according to the Native Americans and the ancient Egyptians. (They all must have passed because there are no pictures of ancient Egyptians or a Native Americans wearing glasses!) The two stars that mark the outer edge of the dipper cup are the “pointer stars” and if you follow them to the north you will find Polaris or the North Star. ¶ Comet Panstarrs should be visible low in the western sky after sunset from March 16th thru March 24th. It will appear as a star with a gaseous tail. Binoculars should help you find Panstarrs, but don’t use binoculars until after the sun has set. It only takes a second to be blinded by the sun magnified in binoculars. Comet Ison will be in the evening skies at the end of November and first part of December. Ison is still predicted to be the brightest comet in the past hundred years. Estimates are that it will be as bright as the moon and might be visible during the day. However, estimates of a comet’s size and brightness can change as the comet orbits closer to the sun. ¶ The Vernal Equinox (start of spring) is on March 20th at 6:02 am. Since the first day of winter, the sun has been crossing the sky slightly higher every day. On the equinox the sun is directly above the Earth’s equator and will begin shining above the northern hemisphere until next September. On the equinox, the sun is above the horizon for twelve hours and below the horizon for twelve hours. After the Vernal Equinox, the farther north you go the more hours of sunlight you get each day. (The sun rises at the north pole on the Vernal Equinox and won’t set again until September.) Our communication satellites orbit at 22,000 miles above the equator and that puts the communication satellites in the path of any Coronal Mass Ejections emitted from the sun when it is above the equator. The charged particles from those ejections can disrupt your television signals or cell phone signals for a day or two on either side of the equinox. The communication satellites are in a geosynchronous orbit - an orbit that is at just the right altitude and speed to keep them over the same place on Earth as the Earth rotates. ¶ On March 10th we change to Daylight Saving Time. Set your clocks - and all those electronic gadgets - ahead one hour. If we didn’t change to Daylight Saving Time, in June the sun would rise at 4:20 am and dawn would begin at 3:00 am. And the latest summer sunset would be at 7:30 pm. ¶ March 26th will be the tenth anniversary of a meteor exploding over Park Forest, Illinois. Parts of the Park Forest Meteor damaged two houses and went through the roof of the fire station. About 40 pounds of meteorites have been recovered from the space intruder. The meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia last month is estimated to have weighed 10,000 tons and was traveling at 46,000 mile per hour. Only one two pound piece and tiny fragments have been recovered from the Chelyabinsk Meteor. Siberia has been the target of several other “hits” from space intruders. The largest was either a comet or asteroid that explode over Tunguska in 1908. The largest meteor or asteroid to hit in what is now the United Stats happened at Manson, Iowa 74 million years ago. Hidden about 300 feet below the surface of Manson is a crater that is 24 miles in diameter. There is a five mile wide asteroid crater that is 280 million years old about 150 feet below the surface in DesPlaines where Interstate 294 (Tri-State) crosses Golf Road. ¶ Joliet Junior College (JJC) will host its open house, Discover JJC, on Saturday, March 3, from 9 a.m. to noon on the Main Campus, 1215 Houbolt Road in Joliet. Faculty and staff will be on hand at Discover JJC to answer questions about JJC’s academic programs, financial aid and scholarships ¶ The Public Shows at the Trackman Planetarium during March are: “The Solar System” on March 7th at 6:30 pm; “Asteroids, Meteors and Comets” on March 12th at 7:30 pm; “A Trip through the Stars” on March 21st at 6:30 pm; “Search for Intelligent Life” on March 26th at 7:30 pm. All the free Public Shows start with a dome presentation displaying the current skies. ¶ Art Maurer Director -Trackman Planetarium Joliet Junior College 815-280-2601 ([email protected])