Watch this Space for March 2014
Moon Phases Planet Watch
New Moon The Planets on view for March are: First Quarter 01 / 03 / 14 & 08 / 03 / 14 Mercury: Not visible this month 30 / 03 / 14 Venus: Bright morning star rising at 04:30, mag -4.3 Full Moon Last Quarter Mars: Rises around 10:00pm in Virgo at mag –0.5 : In Gemini at mag -2.2, sets at 3:30am 16 / 03 / 14 24 / 03 / 14 Jupiter Saturn: Rises at 11pm in Libra at mag +0.6 The Sun Uranus: Sets around 8:30pm in Pisces : Not visible this month Rises: 06:15, 15th March, Sets: 18:05 Neptune
Constellation of the Month Monoceros - The Unicorn 35th in size of the 88 constellations, Monoceros con- tains no bright stars. It can be found in the centre of the Winter Triangle of Betelgeuse, Procyon and Sirius. Monoceros is a relatively modern constellation. Its first certain appearance was on a globe created by the Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius in 1612.
Notable stars: Monocerotis – Beautiful triple star mags 4.7, 5.2 and 6.1 Mon – A lovely double mags 4.4 and 6.6, separation 12” V838 – Variable star that suddenly increased its brightness by a factor of 10,000 on 6th Jan 3002. The light echo was followed using the HST. Image Credit: Torsten Bronger Some Interesting Objects: M50 NGC 2323. Open cluster mag. 5.9. NGC 2264 The Christmas tree cluster, Cone nebula, Foxfur nebula region. NGC 2261 C46. Hubble’s variable nebula, mag 9-10. Changes due to movement of dust clouds. NGC 2238 The rosette nebula region, including the cluster NGC 2244 (C50). The Milky Way goes through Monoceros and the region contains many interesting dust and gas clouds, nebulae and star clusters.
Lunar Feature of the Month Maurolycus
The southern highland region of the moon can be a confusing tangle of thousands of craters, big and small, but one particular crater than stands out in this area, for me at least and excluding Clavius, is the crater Maurolycus.
When you observe this crater its quite apparent that Maurolycus is overlapped by other ancient cra- ters which makes for a observing delight. The crater itself is approximately 4.7 km deep and has high terraced walls which make for fascinating viewing during sunrise and sunset over the crater.
Maurolycus, just below centre, by David Scanlan, FRAS
The Sun in February
The Sun has shown continuing activity during February, particularly in the southern hemisphere, leading to the prospect of an approaching maximum. Of special interest this month is sunspot 1944, shown here on January 7, when it produced an earth-bound X class flare. It then went behind the western limb, only to re- turn again on January 28, when it was re-designated AR1967. It disappeared again around the western limb on February13. On February 24, most solar activity was coming from a location hidden behind the Sun's south-eastern limb (circled area). It is likely that this is sunspot AR1967, returning from a two-week transit across the far side of the Sun. The place to watch is circled.
If this is AR1967, it will mark the third time the active region has crossed the visible face of the sun. Sun- spots seldom last more than two or three weeks; two or three months is remarkable. By now the returning spot is unlikely to be as powerful as previous passes. However, flares and CMEs appearing over the south- eastern limb hint at some remaining potency.
Credit: SDO/HMI (both images)
ISS and Iridium Flares this month
ISS visibility ISS night-time visibility, magnitude greater than -2.0, height greater than 30°
Zenith Start End Date Time Mag Dirn Ht Dirn Ht Dirn Ht
No evening passes
ISS Events Transits of Sun and Moon and night-time close passes.
Date Time Event Tue 4 Mar 8:53 AEHF 1 rocket crosses the sun 9:54 Cosmos 1939 rocket crosses the sun
Satellite flares Magnitude greater than -4.0, height greater than 30°
Date Time Satellite Mag Dirn Ht Sat 1 Mar 20:43 Metop A -4.2 N 40°
Sat 8 Mar 19:49 Iridium 35 -6.3 N 30° Sun 16 Mar 19:09 Iridium 6 -4.8 N 44°
Mon 17 Mar 19:02 Iridium 96 -6.6 N 46° Sun 23 Mar 20:40 Metop B -3.9 ESE 69° Wed 26 Mar 18:17 Iridium 97 -5.5 N 59°
Data from CalSky: http://www.calsky.com