Features: Calendar | Lunar Almanac | Monthly Topic
This Month's Night Sky - NOTE: The next paragraph describes the sky as it
appears at 10 pm EST (11 pm EDT) near mid- month. The sky also looks
this way at 11 pm EST (midnight EDT) during the beginning of the month and
at 9 pm EST (10 pm EDT) by month's end.
Look S as night falls to see the brightest star of the
evening, SIRIUS (Canis Major). Look to its upper right to
find the familiar "hour glass" asterism of constellation
Orion with bright white RIGEL (lower right) and red
BETELGEUSE (upper left). Below the three Belt stars, lies
the Great Orion Nebula (M42 & M43) visible to the naked
eye as a hazy patch of light. Now shift your gaze to the
left to find another bright star, PROCYON (Canis Minor)
the upper star of the "Winter Triangle" mentioned last
month. Above Procyon, and to its left, Saturn glows
brightly and above Saturn at to its right are the Gemini
twins, POLLUX and CASTOR. As the month progresses and
winter becomes spring, orange ALDEBARAN (Taurus) comes
into view to the W. Just to the left of Aldebaran, a star
cluster, the HYADES, might be faintly visible under dark
sky conditions. Above that glows the more famous cluster,
the PLEIADES (M45). Although smaller that the Hyades, it
is much brighter and should be visible as another hazy
patch of light. Some may even be able to make out the
tiny "dipper" arrangement of its eight brightest stars.
High above and a bit to the right is brilliant CAPELLA
(Auriga) and farther right is the famous "W" asterism of
Cassiopeia.
MERCURY make a rather poor appearance after mid-month and
rises only 5 degrees above the ESE horizon about a half
hour before sunrise. Dim, reddish, MARS will be about 10
degrees above and to the right of Mercury at this time.
It will probably require binoculars to see as the sky
brightens. JUPITER rises around midnight and shines high
in the S at dawn.
At nightfall, bright VENUS glows about 30 degrees above
the WSW horizon. Since it is an INFERIOR planet, orbiting
between us and the Sun, a small telescope will show its
gibbous (football-shaped) disk. Both inferior planets
show phases just like our Moon but its very hard to see
this on Mercury. Beautiful, golden, SATURN shines
serenely high in the ESE. It is an amazing sight in a
small telescope.
This is a month of eclipses. There are two solar
eclipses (not visible here, unfortunately!) and a total
lunar eclipse. Total eclipse occurs here in the EST zone
from about 6:30 to 7:00 pm. on the third, Remember
that during a total lunar eclipse, the MOON does not
completely disappear. It will darken and change color
anywhere from reddish to brownish.
Calendar of Events
NOTE: For those observers not in the ET zone, convert the calendar times to your zone's time by subtracting one hour for CT, two for MT and three for PT. Don't forget to adjust for Daylight Savings Time when necessary by subtracting one hour from your planisphere's time.; Dawn and dusk times must also be corrected. See your local newspaper, TV news, or cable TV's Weather Channel for sunrise and sunset times. Unfortunately some of these events may occur during daylight hours in your area.
| DATE | EVENT |
01 |
Look E at about 9 pm to see a close conjunction (1+ degree) of Saturn and the Moon. |
02 |
Look E about an hour after sunset to see a "conjunction" (1+ degree) of the Moon and the bright star Regulus (Leo). |
03 |
Tonight's full Moon is called "Egg" or "Sap" Moon. It
is also the first "total" lunar eclipse since October
28, 2004! In our time zone (EST), the eclipse
will already be at its total phase when it rises
at Sunset. Look E at sunset to see a dim, red
to brown, Moon rise above the horizon. |
11 |
Look for a close "conjunction" (less than a degree)
of the Moon and reddish Antares (Scorpius) Daylight Savings Time (DST) begins at 2 am here. (It begins early from now on and also ends later.) If you use a planisphere, remember that it's time will now be one hour behind your clock's time. Also, if you are running an astronomy program on your computer (as I do), don't forget that many machines, using operating system that are no longer supported (again, as I do), will no longer set themselves for DST. If you need a "patch" (for MS Win95 or Win98) that corrects this problem, send me an email for a link to a program that will. |
12 |
At dawn (and before!), Jupiter (above) is in conjunction with the Moon and (below) with the bright star Antares. |
15 |
Look for a conjunction (2 degrees) of the Moon and Mars. |
16 |
Look ESE about an hour before Sunrise to see a gentle arc beginning with Mercury (very low) to the crescent Moon, then on to reddish Mars (above). |
20 |
The Vernal Equinox occurs when the Sun "crosses" the equator and "heads" N to begin our Spring. Look W at Dusk to see Venus shining high above the crescent Moon. |
28 |
Look S after Sunset to see a repeat of Saturn's conjunction with the now gibbous Moon. |
| Phases of the Moon | Phase and Date(s) | Best viewed before local midnight |
 |
New |
Deep Space Objects |
 |
1st. Qtr |
Planets & Moon |
 |
Full |
Moon |
 |
Last |
Deep Space & Planets |
Topic of the month: Lunar feature: Plato
| Plato is a large, dark, lava filled, walled plain. It is
some 60 miles in diameter and located at the N edge of the Mare Imbrium. --See you next month ! |
| The above image was taken from Daniel Ethier's "Photos of the Moon " at Mr E's Home Page. It is reproduced here by permission. The original image may be modified for Astra's Stargate, "What's Up, Ron?" feature page. | |
This installment of "Whats Up?" is ©2007 Ronald A. Leeseberg, encoded by Dawn Jenkins for Astra's Stargate.
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