The Night Sky March 2022
Probably the only pattern in the sky that you have called by different names is ‘the Plough’ or ‘Big Dipper’. The prominent and recognisable pattern that we see is called an asterism, smaller than the whole constellation of Ursa Major. It has three stars making up its handle, attached to four others making up a bowl. This pattern is visible all year round and the handle seems to rotate clockwise around the North Star like the hand of a clock over the course of a night and anticlockwise during the year.
Diagram ModernSurvivalBlog.com
During Autumn it seems to be sleeping close to the horizon, in Winter the handle dangles downwards and in Spring it seems to spend the evening upside down. As you can imagine it has helped humankind measure the time of day (long before clocks), seasons (long before calendars) and the direction by its two end stars of the ‘bowl’ pointing towards north (long before compasses). Just for a moment try not to focus on this pattern but look wider and you will see that the whole Constellation of Ursa Major is much bigger. It is, in fact, the third largest constellation. This constellation is also known as The Greater Bear.
With a Great Bear superimposed you can see how the handle of the plough is the tail of the bear but its limbs go further outward in to the night sky.
There are many deep sky objects to find in this area but M101 is easy to find as it makes a triangle with the end two stars of the Bear’s tail. This object is spectacular as it is a face on galaxy. Many galaxies are unfortunately tilted or even edge on from us, but M101 has obligingly tilted itself so we have a full view. Similar in shape, with spiral arms, just like our own Milky Way, it is a monster of a galaxy twice the diameter of our own and contains approximately a trillion stars. Its nickname, the Pinwheel Galaxy, is easy to understand as it is similar to the Catherine Wheels we hammer on to a garden post on November 5th and then light, spraying sparking trails as it rotates. When you try to observe it, it may seem a faint smudge as I did in my garden in Embsay! (see below)
Photo Milan Davidovic 2019
But here it is below in its full glory!
Finally, although the patterns and stars that make up the Great Bear or Plough may seem the same distance to us, it is just an illusion. The diagram shows that each star varies considerably from each other.
These stars are in our Milky Way and are relatively close in the scheme of things.
As for M101- I couldn’t fit them on this diagram as it 21 MILLION light-years away!
Planets
A good time to view planets this month is early in the morning. In particular 28th March at 6.30am when you will see a waning crescent moon, Venus , Mars and Saturn low in the South East.
New Moon 2nd March
Full Moon 18th March
UK Summer time 27th March. (Spring forward!)
Clear Skies
Milan Davidovic
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