Items Featured in TGP NOMINAL 8.4 - March Skies 2022
Help Establish Inclusive Skating Charity in Memory of Gail Howard:
We recently lost one of our Feel The Force Day family.
Gail Howard, Feel The Force Day Executive team member & wife of Feel The Force Day Co-Founder, Simon Howard
sadly passed away after her battle with Cancer.
First of all our deepest condolences & thoughts go out to Simon, family and friends on the sad passing of Gail
from the entire Crew at TGP NOMINAL.
Gail always fought for what she felt strongly about, whether it be cruelty to animals or Inclusion.
She was also passionate about Ice skating and became a professional Ice skating coach.
So a group of her closest family and friends have agreed to try to establish a charity in her memory to support people in Cambridgeshire with additional needs and disabilities to ice skate - something she championed for many years.
Simon has setup a go fund me fundraising page to help kick start the charity*
So if you would like to donate to the fundraiser, Click On This Link.
*Establishing a charity can be difficult, so if it is not possible to bring the charity to fruition, any monies will be donated to Maggie’s Cancer Charity in Charing Cross Hospital and MacMillan Cancer Support in Peterborough.
Ross Hockham's March Sky Guide:
Most of the Planets now out of the way, so we can't really see them unfortunately.
So we've got as a kind of like rough rundown:
Uranus and Neptune still up, they are setting a little bit earlier through the month but you can't see them with a telescope.
The Morning is kind of the main thing at the moment.
You've got Venus up in the Sky with Mars below it.
Mercury is popping up in the March skies and also I believe Saturn is creeping up.
Jupiter is kind of by the sun, so I think we've lost the Planets for a few months
but there are loads and loads more we can see
From the 1st, Comet 19P/Borrelly is bright enough to be seen with binoculars this month.
Starting the month just to the left of the constellation Aries (The Ram) Star Hamal
and rising into the constellation Perseus (The Hero) towards the end of the month.
Although it is dimming, it is a Periodic Comet, which was visited by the spacecraft Deep Space 1 in 2001.
Mercury and Saturn are in the morning sky on the 2nd, but this will be a tough spot.
Especially as the sun rises just half an hour after they do.
So, please be extra careful not to look at the Sun!
Venus will rise around 5am with Mars below it, then further left are Saturn and Mercury, Saturn being the high one.
If you are into minor planets, 16 Psyche reaches opposition on the night of the 3rd
just under the constellation Leo (The lion).
16 Psyche is a large M-type asteroid, which contain higher concentrations of metal
and are widely thought to be the source of iron meteorites
possibly being part of the core of a planet that was not to be.
The prefix "16" signifies that it was the sixteenth minor planet in order of discovery.
On the morning of the 10th, Venus and Mars have got a little bit closer in the sky.
With the bright Venus above the red planet you can’t miss her, Mars will be dimmer.
The Sun will be rising a hour or so after so you have a little window to view them both.
Tonight, have a peek at the Moon around 17:30 at the crater Ptolemaeus
which will be just below the middle of the Moon along the terminator part of the Moon.
The shadow cast into this crater is known as 'Nessie', which I’m guessing looks like the Loch Ness Monster.
There is also a great little crater called Ammonius within this larger crater that looks pretty awesome.
On the 12th The Jewelled handle is again visible on the Moon this evening,
with the sunlight glinting off the The Montes Jura (Jura Mountains) range creating a awesome effect to see.
On the night of the 13th Pop out again and have a look to see if you can spot The Maiden on the Moon
in the same area as yesterdays Jura mountains.
Just on the bottom of them is an upside-down lady sitting on the rock with flowing hair.
A reflector telescope will flip it for you.
The morning Moon on the 19th occults a star.
Well its actually a binary star called Porrima in the constellation Virgo (The Virgin).
It will slip behind the top left hand side of the Moon at 05:52am but as timings change due to location.
Get out before and have a look.
It will not re-appear from the other side for us to see, as the Moon sets shortly after.
On the 20th, Venus reaches its Greatest Western Elongation, meaning it will be at it's highest point for us to see.
It will hang fire here for a little bit before swinging back towards the Sun, over the next month or so.
Around this time is the best time to get a peek of the goddess of beauty.
Grab a scope and you will see it is at about half phase, watch it as it moves
and you’ll see its phase change as it orbits the Sun.
Today is also the Spring Equinox where the centre of the Sun’s disc crosses the celestial equator,
so warmer times are coming but so are the brighter nights and longer days.
On the 23rd, just after sunset is a great time to look out for the Zodiacal Light.
Which is a faint inclined cone glow in the western sky.
It is dust that scatters the light made from collisions between asteroids in the main asteroid belt and debris from comets. There have been some reports recently that Mars dust etc also has a part to play in it.
Get up early around 5am on the 24th and you’ll get a great welcome from Saturn, Mars and Venus
creating a cool triangle in the morning sky.
Venus will be the higher brightest planet, with Mars just below right
and the lower Saturn farther to their left.
A lovely Morning treat!
On the 25th, The Moon will have crept out of the way for a few good nights of darkness.
A great time to try out our binocular or telescope objects of the Month, which we will cover at the end.
A great time to try out our binocular or telescope objects of the Month, which we will cover at the end.
NAKED EYE OBJECT OF THE MONTH:
On the 8th, The Moon between the Pleiades and Hyades will make for a great naked eye view
especially with the bright red star Aldebaran shining in the Hyades, the bulls eye.
This will look really cool as the bright blue Pleiades to its left
and the V shaped cluster of the Hyades which are redder
will make a stunning contrast and perhaps a great picture.
While here, see if you can spot Orion’s belt
and draw a line up through it to find the constellation Taurus (The Bull) and these clusters.
BINOCULAR OBJECT OF THE MONTH:
The Hyades star cluster is a V shaped open cluster of stars
making up the head of the constellation Taurus (The Bull) with the big bright star, Aldebaran as it's eye.
The Hyades is our nearest open cluster at about 153 light-years away from the Sun.
It consists of a roughly spherical group of hundreds of stars sharing the same age and place of origin.
Although made up of 6 red/orange stars it actually has a lot more or you to see through binoculars.
They are known as the brothers of the brighter blue stars the Pleiades nearby.
So why not check both out with your binoculars and see the comparison.
TELESCOPE OBJECT OF THE MONTH:
Around the 1800’s a French guy named Charles Messier was an avid comet hunter.
He loved finding and cataloguing these awesome celestial bodies and was fascinated by them.
But there where other objects in the sky that got in his way that weren’t comets.
So he catalogued them so that he would not mistake them for comets and waste his time.
We now use this catalogue to see these brighter objects in our skies.
From star clusters to globular clusters, Galaxies to Nebula there are 110 objects that we can see.
This time of year is a great time to find some and tick them off your list as most are up over the course of the night
People call this the Messier Marathon so why not see how many you can nab in a night.
Maybe challenge your Astro buddies.
ASTRoPHOTOGRAPHY OBJECT OF THE MONTH:
Seeing as we have had a few storms lately I thought we would go for the object known as Thor's Helmet.
Matt Smith a member of the UK Astronomy Group recently captured an image of it entered it into our Photo Competition
and it was voted runner up for Nebula Category.
Thor's Helmet or NGC2359 is an Emission Nebula
between the constellations Canis Major (The Big Dog) and Monoceros (The Unicorn).
It is approximately 12 thousand light years away and 30 light-years in size.
The central star is extremely hot and is thought to be in a brief pre-supernova stage of evolution.
Its odd that the constellation Hydra (The Water Snake) is not far away either… ‘All hail Hydra’.
AStronomy & Ale @ The Talbot Inn - 21/02/2022:
UK Astronomy Visits The Midlands:
Various Videos:
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