This Months Sky
Charts.
Charts
for March 2008
At the end of twilight around 21.00 April and 22.00 May Ursa Major will
be directly over head but upside down. Leo will be due south of
this but will look slightly odd shaped as Saturn is very near to the
bright star Regulus.
Zodiacal Light.
This is a faint glow along the
zodiac (or ecliptic). It is brightest along those parts of the ecliptic
nearest the sun and can be seen in the west a few hours after sunset or
in the east a few hours before sunrise. Under the best circumstances,
the zodiac light is brighter than the milky way and is actually
reflected light from planetary dust in the plane of the ecliptic. The
best time to see the zodiacal light is when the ecliptic makes a steep
angle with the horizon in either the east or west. This means spring in
the west and autumn in the east.
Can you see the zodiacal light here? You certainly need a fairly dark
horizon, but it has often been mistaken for light pollution, and I know
it has been seen regularly from near Newbury. Perhaps we don't see it
because we don't expect to see it so we don't look.
Variable Star Scene.
The variable star Mira, in Cetus is currently near maximum and visible to the naked eye.
Graph
Dark
May
To
use the graph above place a ruler horizontally on the chart. Where it
crosses a line representing an object or phenomena the time can be
found for that particular date. For example sunset is approximately
20:00 Universal Time on May 23, and Jupiter sets at
03:20
Universal Time on the same date.
The dark bands represents the periods when there is no Moon in the
evening sky.
The times of twilight are calculated for the intermediate value of the
Sun being 150 below the horizon which is adequate for most observing
situations. Officially astronomical twilight ends when the Sun is 180..
below the horizon.
Use this template if you want to draw Saturn.
Did
You Know?
You
can view the
2.70 microwave background radiation in your own home. This is the
radiation discovered by Penzias and Wilson in 1965, and is the left
over radiation from the 'big bang', red shifted to 2.70 above absolute
zero. Just de-tune your TV set and part of the 'snow' is caused by this
microwave radiation.
Did
You Know?
Polaris
is
actually a triple star system, and the Hubble Space Telescope has
imaged the third star for the first time. It has been known since 1780
that Polaris was at least a binary. The third star has been inferred
from the motion of the main pair. Polaris C was spotted 3.2
billion km from Polaris A.
Did
You Know?
Benjamin Franklin conceived of it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle endorsed it. Winston Churchill campaigned for it. Kaiser Wilhelm first employed it. Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt went to war with it and more recently the United States fought an energy crisis with it. What am I talking about? Daylight Saving Time.
Did
You Know?
The Tax year begins on April 5th: Why?
On January 4th 45 BC the Julian calendar came into operation. This year was called the year of confusion, but the new calendar was fairly accurate and much better than what had gone before. Although it was tinkered with over the subsequent years it remained substantially unchanged for hundreds of years. It was revised by Pope Gregory and a modified calendar was introduced in 1582, but since the various church fractions were at each others throats (nothing changes) it was not introduced into Britain until Wednesday September 2nd 1752 when 11 days was removed from that month. Riots ensued with the cry of “Give us back our 11 days”. However financial establishments were in a quandary over what to do about the paying of taxes. The answer was to change
the date of the start of the financial year from the traditional date of March 25th to April 5th.
Light Pollution
Recently
The House of Common's
Science
and Technology Committee reported on "LIGHT POLLUTION AND ASTRONOMY",
but
when Tom Harris MP of the Select Committee asked a question in the
house
about light pollution on Oct 22 2003, it was treated less than
seriously
by many present. Please write to Rt.Hon. A. Blair MP, Prime Minister,
10
Downing Street, London.
