The Night Sky March 2018
There are two interesting things to spot and identify this month, the constellation of Leo and an excellent opportunity to spot two planets.
Two full moons appear this month, one at the beginning of the month and one at the end (the second called a Blue Moon, as it is rare.) The new moon is on the 17th March and the days either side are the best time to observe the night sky without the glare of the moon.
As I stated in a previous article we are very lucky to be able to see our galaxy, the Milky Way, on a dark night in Embsay. Imagine it being like a huge catherine wheel spinning around. As it spins, it leaves four great arcs or ‘arms’ that spray out to make up a huge plate shape. When we observe the Milky Way we are actually seeing one of these four arcs, which is a band of material made of stars, gas and much more than we can currently detect or understand. This month, however, I am going to ask you to look away from it. This is because we can then see deep into intergalactic space. We are going to look in one of these areas away from our galaxy in order to find a lion!
The Constellation of Leo.
Leo is a constellation rich in many galaxies and it is easy to find. Look South East (from Embsay over the top of the quarry) and half way up in the sky there will be what looks like a large backwards question mark! This forms the lion’s mane and the triangle of stars to the left are its hind quarters. In Greek mythology this is the lion killed by Hercules. The bottom bright star of the inverted question mark is Regulus. Another good way of finding Leo is to use the pointer stars as described in my January article. Draw an imaginary line from the pointer stars, one end of the line points towards Polaris and the other end, you’ve guessed it, points to Leo. If you have binoculars you may be able to spot The Beehive Cluster close by, also known as M44. It is a cluster of dozens of stars. With a telescope you may be able to find the Leo Triplet, three faint galaxies together. (See my diagram for help in locating these).
Venus and Mercury.
Normally it is quite difficult to glimpse Mercury as it is the planet orbiting closest to the sun. However, during this month when the sun goes down, it will be positioned perfectly to try and spot it. The planet Venus will be a help as both will be visible around 15th March at sunset. The best chance to spot them will be from higher ground (Embsay Crag would be perfect if it wasn’t pitch black on your way down!!) and looking West low down in the sky. Venus will be the brightest point of light and above it will be Mercury. The space probe Messenger visited Mercury in 2011 and took close to 100,000 images in order to map its whole surface. It is difficult to spot because it is roughly 48 million miles away and only about 3000 miles in diameter, which is only a little bigger than our moon.
Your easy challenge this month will be to spot Venus, then a slightly harder one to spot Mercury.
If you have binoculars or a telescope, The Beehive Cluster is challenging with the Leo Triplets being a brilliant achievement to spot. After many years of searching myself, the first time I spotted the Leo Triplets was relatively recently when I stayed in a bothy in a farmer’s field in Galloway. An astronomical wonder and well worth the effort!
Don’t forget BST begins 25th March 1am clocks spring forward.
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