Star Trail
In mid-February I decided to leave my camera pointing upward to capture the trail of the stars arcing across the Embsay sky (see below). Unsurprisingly, it captured a classic astronomy image seen in many books and magazines. Polaris (the Pole Star) is fixed to one point, whilst others spin around this point : the further away from the Pole Star the larger the arc travelled.
I decided to ‘clean up’ the image by removing all of the wayward streaks but thought you would like to see what the unedited version looked like.
In this image, it is not just star trails we see. Firstly, there is the big bright arc. This is the International Space Station passing overhead. It is incredibly bright compared to the arcs made by the stars. You may be wondering why the break in the trail? My camera is set to open for 6 seconds, gather in all the light it can and shut, then it takes a while to process the image then open again for the next shot, hence the delay/gaps in recording. Smaller dotted or dashed lines tell the same story but they record satellites or aeroplanes. Our night sky is very busy place.
Our Night Sky this month.
Looking North 22nd March 9pm 2023 (Diagram produced by Stellarium)
Looking South 22nd March 9pm 2023 (Diagram produced by Stellarium)
Our Constellation this month is 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. If you have binoculars you may be able to spot The Beehive Cluster https://science.nasa.gov/m44-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. These are some of the finest galaxy groupings for us to view in our night sky.
Just in case you still can’t find Leo this will help.
A map of the constellation Leo the lion. Image via IAU and Sky & Telescope
Photo: Milan Davidovic . Leo Triplet (M56, M66, NGC 3628)
On the left M66 is a bright spiral galaxy, probably the brightest of the three. M65 at the bottom is a beautiful edge-on spiral, highly inclined to our view. Finally NGC 3628 at the top, lower in brightness and showing a dust line that extends the whole width of the galaxy. No apologies for how difficult it is to find this group (It took me years without the right gear) but it is worth the search!
The March Equinox
At the March equinox, day and night are the same length (more-or-less). It marks the beginning of spring and the days become longer. The Earth is bolt upright not tilted towards or away from the Sun.
Planets
March 1st
Jupiter and Venus will be a moon’s width apart in the West at 7.40pm
In general, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus are in the West during the evening whilst Saturn is a morning object in the East.
Full Moon 7th March
New Moon 21st March
March 26th British Summer Time begins.
Read more and past articles by clicking my blog at
Clear Skies
Milan Davidovic
コメント