StarWatch: Moravian College Astronomy

StarWatch for the greater Lehigh Valley

MARCH 2004

MARCH STAR MAP | STARWATCH INDEX | MOON PHASE CALENDAR

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393 MARCH 7, 2004: The Path to the Pleiades: After 31 years of teaching under the dome of an artificial sky, I have not tired of having my students shoot their flashlight arrows past the pointer stars of the Big Dipper to find the Pole Star or follow the arc of the Dipper’s handle to Arcturus, a reddish star, and then onward to spike bluish Spica. With the incorporation of sound effects and wireless microphones into the programming, there is never a dull moment under the heavens. My elementary pupils are even treated to receptive Internet audiences from the Frank Sinatra Senior Citizens Center in Hoboken, NJ. These people sing, applaud, and even cheer to everyone’s surprise. It’s a riot of fun, and it keeps those arrows of light in a constant state of motion and consistently hitting their targets. My favorite technique for finding the Seven Sisters or Pleiades, the best-known star cluster in the heavens, is to use the three belt stars of Orion the Hunter. At 7 p.m. they are unmistakable—three stars equally spaced and equally bright, located mid-sky and due south. Place your imaginary arrow over the upward tilt of Orion’s belt. Three, two, one—blastoff… Your arrow will rocket off into space passing right of Aldebaran, the reddish eye of Taurus the Bull, and glide successfully into the arms of the Pleiades, a cluster of about three thousand young stars 350 light years distant and “born” about 50 to 100 million years ago. They appear misty to the eye from suburban locations, but binoculars will reveal scores of blue-white luminaries, the brightest six forming a tiny “little dipper.” Some clusters are forever together, others like the Pleiades will not possess sufficient gravity to sustain a long-term relationship, and over time the cluster members will evaporate, each star orbiting the galaxy on its own. Our sun left its birthing cluster billions of years ago.

394 MARCH 14, 2004: Donate A Telescope: Dieruff Sophomore, Sarabeth Brockley, came bounding into the planetarium and with widened eyes exclaimed, “It’s here. You finally got it!” Senior Daniel J. Sirotnak and Sophomore Caleb R. Rochelle were practicing the disassembly of a newly refurbished 6-inch refractor, a gift from Irma Mack of Bethlehem in memory of her husband, Marty Mack. What a beautiful refractor it is with all of its glistening machined aluminum and brass parts! Its mount and long tube barely fit under the 7-foot ceiling that surrounds the dome area of the Allentown School District Planetarium, and it takes a two-person team to haul it outside. Even with its size and massiveness, there is no shortage of willing students wanting to learn how to use it and lug it out into the night air to observe. Matt Gustantino of Orefield and I had been renovating the telescope since October. Then four weeks ago, Dale Meron and family of Salisbury Township presented to the ASD Planetarium two smaller but equally beautiful telescopes. They have been cleaned up and, in one case, repaired and are currently ready to be used by students. With additional parts donated by the Meron family, we will be able to repair another telescope that has grown weary from 30 years of service. Obviously, this calls for a party, a star party that is. We are going to highlight these new scopes to the public by viewing the five naked eye planets and the moon from Dieruff’s campus on March 23, rain/snow date on the 24 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The event will take place in the main parking lot at Dieruff H.S., 815 N. Irving St., Allentown. You may bring your own scope if you own one. Already Dr. Terry Pundiak, a Dieruff grad, will be bringing his 16-inch telescope—WOW! Details will follow in next week’s StarWatch.

395a MARCH 21-23, 2004: A Cornucopia of Planets at Dieruff: The next two weeks will allow astronomy enthusiasts the opportunity of viewing Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, along with a waxing moon, as it wanders among these five classical planets. The most difficult observation will be spotting Mercury, which will be low in the sky but still in its most favorable position in years. The best chances for viewing Mercury are the seven days centered on March 29. Start viewing about 6:50 p.m. when the sun will be about six degrees below the horizon. Find Venus high in the west, and construct an imaginary line between it and the brightest part of the twilight glow. About one-third of the distance from the horizon to Venus will be Mercury. Use binoculars and make sure that you have a good western horizon without any obscurations. On March 22 the moon is one binocular field above and to the left of Mercury. On the 24th the thin crescent moon and Venus make a striking pair in the evening sky. Join the ASD Planetarium’s StarWatch team as we telescopically showcase these five naked eye planets, the moon, and other winter objects on March 23, 7-9 p.m. from the main parking lot at Dieruff High School, 815 N. Irving St., Allentown, PA. A Mercury observing station will be available by 6:45 p.m. on the sidewalk at the east end of Irving Street Park. Bring your binoculars to help spot Mercury. The public is also invited to set up their telescopes. Remember, inclement weather, very windy conditions, or a mostly cloudy sky postpones the event until March 24. A go/no go message will be available by 5 p.m. by calling the ASD Planetarium at 484-765-5557 or logging on to www.astronomy.org. Find a map of the Dieruff campus in the current web StarWatch article at the same URL. See you at Dieruff for a cornucopia of planets.
395b MARCH 24-27, 2004: Planets Galore: The next two weeks will allow astronomy enthusiasts the opportunity of viewing Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, along with a waxing moon, as it wanders among these five classical planets. The most difficult observation will be spotting Mercury, which will be low in the sky but still in its most favorable position in years. The best chances for viewing Mercury are the seven days centered on March 29. Start viewing about 6:50 p.m. when the sun will be about six degrees below the horizon. Find Venus high in the west, and construct an imaginary line between it and the brightest part of the twilight glow. About one-third of the distance from the horizon to Venus will be Mercury. Use binoculars to sight Mercury first. It should be between one and two binocular fields of view above the horizon. To help insure success, your western horizon should be free from obstructions, such as trees and buildings. On the 24th the thin crescent moon is a mere two degrees to the left of the Goddess of Love and Beauty, making a striking pair in the evening sky. Look for earthshine, the light from a nearly full Earth as seen from the moon and reflected back to us. Sometimes called the ashen light, it will make the unlit portion of the moon appear ghostly against the darkening sky. The view will be spectacular through binoculars as twilight deepens. On the following evening the waxing crescent moon glides to within one degree to the right of Mars. Again, use binoculars, a spotting scope, or a telescope at low magnification to reveal the ruddy color of Mars next to a pristinely white and ashen-lit moon. If observing through a telescope, the eyepiece with the longest focal length will produce the lowest power. By March 28 a slightly gibbous moon is about five degrees above and to the right of Saturn. Binoculars will again heighten the view.

396 MARCH 28, 2004: NEAT Comet Coming: There is a NEAT comet coming to visit our northern skies during the month of May. Dubbed Comet NEAT or more formally C/2001 Q4, it was discovered by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on August 24, 2001. Astronomers have been monitoring its progress ever since. For a first timer into our solar system the comet’s brightness has been keeping up with its predicted luster. Current forecasts indicate that NEAT should become a naked eye object during the first half of May, rivaling or even exceeding the stars of the Big Dipper, which is now rising handle down, cup up in the NE during the early evening hours. But keep in mind that comets are often very catlike in their demeanor. Comets like cats have tails and do precisely as they please. This is especially true for new comets making their first appearance from the distant Oort cloud, the deepfreeze repository for these solar system interlopers. New comets often contain a thin coating of volatile materials which interacts with sunlight to form a much brighter than expected object when still very far from the sun. When this coating is gone, the comet’s brightness stabilizes like it did with Comet Kohoutek in 1973-74. Kohoutek was predicted to become nearly as bright as the full moon. Instead it was barely visible to the unaided eye. There will be more about Comet NEAT in subsequent weeks. For the time being, keep watching the planets. As darkness deepens, Mercury, Venus, and Mars will be in the west, while Saturn will be high in the south and Jupiter in the east. The moon continues to brighten from first quarter on March 28, when it will be positioned just above Saturn, to its full phase on April 5. On April 2 the waxing gibbous moon is to the left of Jupiter.

March Star Map

March Moon Phase Calendar