Items Featured In TGP NOMINAL Xtra - March Skies 2021
WIL CHEUNG'S March SKY GUIDE:
March is a really exciting in terms of their different objects to look at, so what I've done is picked out some of my highlights for March and it also has the Ross Hockham approval as well,
with Ross putting in some suggestions.
On March 3rd we've got Mars being quite close to the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters cluster.
It's just south of it at the moment and over the last few weeks,
it has been getting closer and closer to the red planet.
So March 3rd will be Mars closest approach to the Pleiades.
On the 4th is something that I'm really going to attempt and I'm excited about.
There's a minor planet called Vesta, located within the Asteroid belt.
It's actually one of the largest objects in the Asteroid belt.
Vesta is 326 miles in diameter but it reaches opposition (which is basically the brightest it'll get for us)
on March the 4th and it will still be fairly bright over the few days after as well.
It will reach magnitude 5.9, so it's technically naked eye visible,
but of course it will be really good with binoculars or telescope.
On March 6th, Mercury reaches it’s greatest elongation from the sun.
Because Mercury orbits the Sun pretty close, we struggle to see it from a Line of Sight, here on Earth.
But on March 6th, it's going to reach about 27 degrees away from the Sun.
Which means 40 minutes before sunrise, looking over to the east, you might just spot planet Mercury.
It’s possible to see it for a few more days after that as well.
On March 9th, we've got the conjunction of the Moon and the planet Saturn.
So over to the East in the early hours of March 9th, you'll see,
just before sunrise a conjunction of the Moon and the gas giant.
On March 10th, the moon moves further across and now there is the conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter.
Again over to the east before Sunrise.
It'll be really awesome to look at and to be fair you do need a good Eastern Horizon as they are low down.
So hopefully if you do have an opportunity and of course clear skies,
then you should be able to see it no problem.
On March 14th we have a very thin crescent moon.
This will be about an hour after sunset.
Look over to the west and see if you can spot at very thin crescent Moon.
It will be low on the horizon setting over to the west.
Moving on to the 19th, I've looked at the charts and this looks really really cool.
This is one of my highlights for the month.
and it's a conjunction with the Moon, Mars and Aldebaran the eye of Taurus the Bull.
These three objects will line up together.
The Moon will still be a nice little Crescent.
I'm really excited for this.
Finally on March 28th, we have a full Moon which is called The Full Worm Moon.
So that will be something to look out for towards the end of March.
WIL CHEUNG'S OBJECTS / Challenges OF THE MONTH:
Last month we talked about the Winter Hexagon
and this month it's also going to be revolving around the brightest stars over in the southern skies.
So what I really would like you all to do, if you have the opportunity is to have a look Sirius again,
the brightest star in the night sky.
Sirius in Canis Major and then Aldebaran, over in the eye of Taurus the Bull.
Further North, you should see Capella, one of the brightest stars in the night sky and Betelgeuse within Orion.
These four stars are my target for you this month and just notice to see the different colours,
and how they also twinkle differently.
Sirius is quite low in the sky and we have a lot of scintillation.
This is due to it's light coming through the thickest part of our atmosphere lower down,
so we have loads of twinkling.
Aldebaran is still of course very red star, Capella bright white and Betelgeuse a red star as well.
So just have a look at these four brightest stars and notice what constellations they are in.
My binoculars challenge is a really cool one and it's called NGC 2169.
It’s an open cluster of stars.
We've already talked about the Pleiades being an open cluster of stars but NGC 2169 isn't as well known.
You will have to use as either a pair binoculars or maybe telescope to see it,
located within the elbow of Orion.
Open clusters are collection of random patterns but when you find NGC 2169,
you should be able to see what looks like the number 37 in the sky.
Now is a really a great time to look for and that's why it’s my binoculars challenge this month.
My telescope object is the M66 group The Leo Triplets.
Over March, Leo will be the dominant constellation in the night sky.
So it's a great time to look at the three galaxies through your telescope.
With a decent beginners intermediate telescope you will be able to spot the Leo Triplets,
which are three spiral galaxies located in the constellation Leo, of course.
They are about about 35 million light-years away
and it's one of my favourite object to look at in the spring sky,
and my telescope challenge for March.