Welcome to our quick take on top celestial wonders to spot in the March night sky! Well we’ve certainly been spoiled for entertainment so far this year with the heavyweights of our Solar System -Earth’s planetary neighbours gathering together on the same side of the Sun to put on the first ever ‘Grand Parade’ of the planets – it would seem, primarily for our enjoyment! An amazing event that no doubt filled all able to witness it in the Northern hemisphere with awe and wonder. If you missed seeing all the big guns of the Solar System within the same skyscape last month – don’t worry as the brightest-looking planets: Mars, Venus, and Jupiter can still be spotted.
Image Credit: TheSpaceway/Pixabay.com
But what’s new for us to see this month? Well on the 23rd March we will be able to watch Saturn apparently morph into a ringless planet as the great sandy-coloured gas giant will be positioning its spectacular ring system edge-on to Earth. Located 3.7 million times farther from Earth than the Moon, it’s no surprise that to the regular naked-eye observer, on any clear night – Saturn would appear ringless. But what makes this month special is that even through a good telescope -Saturn’s mighty ring system, the most massive in the Solar System will temporarily seem to ‘disappear’! This rare celestial illusion happens about once every 15 years and occurs when Earth ‘crosses’ the plane of Saturn’s rings, albeit from afar…
Image Credit: Adege/Pixabay.com
Mid-month and much closer to home, Earth’s natural satellite will display its full daytime face to our planet from the 12th to the 14th, but with a special twist. From almost 400 000 kilometres away – our Moon will happen to pass through an incredibly small zone of the Solar System, that tiny invisible patch in the darkness of Space where Earth casts a shadow on any objects directly behind it (from the Sun). The Native Americans named the various full Moons and gave the one in March the title Worm Moon, due to the fact that worms tend to come to the surface as the ground warms up in early spring. So on the 14th March weather-permitting, we’ll be able to watch a worm Moon become a ‘Blood Moon’. To see it though you’ll need to get up early as the Penumbral Eclipse starts at a few minutes to 4am, and in the UK and Ireland – as long as there are no trees or buildings blocking your view – we’ll be able to catch a glimpse of the Full lunar Eclipse before the Moon disappears beneath the horizon. The stunning lunar spectacle caused by the Sun, Earth and Moon briefly being lined up perfectly won’t take place again until September.
Thanks to our planet’s 23 degree tilt on its axis of rotation we get seasonal variety, most noticeably of course between the summer and the winter with more hours for stargazing available to us in one and minimal hours of darkness in the other. But exactly between the two, or more precisely, when our planet is exactly halfway around the Sun between its Winter Solstice and Summer Solstice positions is Earth’s equinox. This is the point on Earth’s orbital journey around our star at which Earth’s tilt (for once), will have no direct effect and in fact everywhere on Earth will have an equal number of hours of daylight as darkness. This phenomenon is due to take place on the 20th March.
Image Credit: Stellarium/Nick Parke
So the planets have already aligned for us, Earth’s nearest celestial neighbour will turn red mid-month, but not to be outdone, the Armagh Observatory & Planetarium will be projecting its own ‘Bat signal’ high above the Earth at the end of the month. (No, you’re right, I jest…) Although the shape in the sky on the 29th March may not look unlike my organisation’s lovely logo -the worthy finale to the third month of this already-stunning astronomical year will be performed by that object which accounts for 99.8% of all the ‘stuff’ in the Solar System – our local star, in concert with the Moon for a partial Solar eclipse. The celestial mechanics of what goes on in a solar eclipse is so stunning that even a partial solar eclipse makes for an exciting event to witness. Although Earth’s natural satellite is only one quarter of the Earth’s diameter and the Sun is 1000 000 times bigger than the Earth, because the Sun is about 375 times farther from us than the Moon, the Moon’s disk happens to perfectly cover (or sometimes during a total solar eclipse more than slightly covers) the Sun’s disk from view. So although totality will not take place during 29th March’s partial solar eclipse, earthlings across much of the globe will be able to see (*if observed ‘safely’ and not by direct staring) up to 40% of the Sun’s face blocked from view as the Moon continues its monthly progress around the Earth. The event should commence shortly after 10am and end 2 hours later. During this event the brightest object in the Solar System may drop from an apparent magnitude of -26.75 to -26.14, so don’t be worrying about having a torch with you – the world won’t be suddenly plunged to darkness. Instead, let’s hope for clear skies!
source: armaghplanet.com