Skywatch Line for Monday and Tuesday March 31st and April 1st, written by Joe Slomka
This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Monday and Tuesday March 31st and April 1st, written by Joe Slomka.
The Sun sets at 7:21 PM; night falls at 8:58. Dawn begins at 5:00 AM and ends with Sunrise at 6:37.
Monday’s Moon rises in Aries, rising at 7:34 AM, 18° high, 33 arc-minutes in size, 8% in brightness, and sets at 11:42 PM. Tuesday finds the Moon moved to Taurus, and rises at 8:50 AM, is 68° high, same size, and does not set until 12:05 AM, Wednesday.
Uranus loses height and soon is lost in the evening, while Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Neptune are not visible. Neptune will emerge later in the month.
Jupiter finds observation becoming difficult, elongation from the Sun lowers from 65° to 40°; the 4.5-day-old Moon passes 6°north on April 2 and 3. Tuesday finds the Great Red Spot (a giant storm) at 3:46 AM and also at 11:38 PM. Wednesday presents Io being occulted at 12:38 AM and Europa begins its march at 12:43 AM.
Mars continues be observable from evening hours this month, and moves from Gemini to Cancer on the 12th. The Red Plant rises at 12:22 PM, shines with first magnitude, appears 8 arc-seconds, 71° high, highest at 7:59 PM and sets at 3:39 AM.
As night falls, the unmistakable shape of Leo, the Lion, dominates the evening sky. Leo is one of those constellations that looks like its namesake. If one looks past Denebola, the Lion’s Tail, one sees a faint hazy cloud. Binoculars reveal it to be a galactic star cluster. This cluster is called Coma Berenices. Unlike most constellations, Berenice was not a mythical figure. She was married to Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt. When her brother-in-law involved the Pharaoh in a war, Berenice, like all wives, worried about her husband in battle. She vowed to Aphrodite that she would donate a lock of her hair if her husband arrived home safely. He did; and she fulfilled her promise. One evening the royal couple inquired of the court priest-astrologer what happened to her donation. He replied by pointing to a hazy cloud in the sky and said the gods accepted her sacrifice. Berenice is famous for other reasons; she is Cleopatra’s grandmother. The modern Libyan city of Benghazi bears a modified version of her name. Her and her husband are memorialized on the famous Rosetta Stone.
Clear skies Joe Slomka