StarWatch: Moravian University Astronomy

MARCH 2023

MARCH STAR MAP | MOON PHASE CALENDAR | STARWATCH INDEX | NIGHT SKY NOTEBOOK

Current Solar X-rays:

Current Geomagnetic Field:

lunar phases

1385 MARCH 5, 2023: Two Lunar Misconceptions Revealed This Week: Have you ever heard about how crazy things get when the moon is full? Patients in psychiatric wards become unhinged; nurses will swear that more babies get born, and police officers often reflect on how crime rates spike. Well, it isn't true as NYC Police Commissioner, Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck), testified at a recent Sunday dinner discussion for which Blue Bloods is so famous. Whether the writers knew it or not, statistics bear no positive correlation between full moons and a spike in lunacy. Although I have never come across a theory as to why this misconception continues, I have developed my own. * For about two nights before and after the moon is full, a casual glance at Luna in the sky gives the impression that the moon is completely illuminated. If within that five-day period something weird happens, it can be blamed on the full moon. Since the syzygy (straight) alignment is similar to a new moon, the question needs to be raised as to why is there no correlation of craziness with the new moon? The answer to me is simple. There is little or no moon to be seen. Check out this full moon fallacy for yourself during the next five nights as the moon waxes to full and then begins its waning phase to a new moon. Give the moon a casual glance and see if you don't think that it looks full. Then observe Luna more critically. If you have binoculars, use them to help to reveal that the moon is either waxing or waning; however, they are not necessary to confirm this observation. They just make it easier to see.
Sunday, March 5: Two days before the moon is full… Its rising time for the Lehigh Valley is approximately 4:15 p.m. Wait until it gets dark before making your phase observations.
Monday, March 6: One day before the full moon… Its rising time is about 5:15 p.m., but again give the moon a chance to gain some altitude so that it can be observed in a dark sky before judging its phase.
Tuesday, March 7: The moon is in opposition to the sun tonight in its full phase, rising when the sun sets and setting when the sun rises. It will be visible all night long. This is the best phase to witness the moon illusion. See below.
Wednesday, March 8: Luna is one day after being full with a rising time of approximately 7:15 p.m. Wait until 9 p.m. to observe Luna in the SE.
Thursday, March 9: The rising time is at 8:15 p.m. Observe the moon in the SE by 10 p.m.
The other misconception that I would like to address is how big the moon looks when it is on the horizon, better known as the Moon Illusion. It is a perceptual difficulty of the brain not based upon any measurable clues. The same illusion can be created on a two-dimensional surface as seen in the slide that I developed to illustrate this effect here. According to the intuitive brain, the moon on the horizon is considered to be more distant than the moon which appears higher in the sky. The brain accepts this lunar distance misconception, while the eye messages to the brain that Luna is the same size anywhere in the sky. This causes the brain to make the moon look larger near to the horizon than it actually appears. The moon illusion is most likely not created by comparing Luna against a background of objects that appear smaller, but which the brain knows would appear larger if you were closer to them. * The moon's rising times are posted, but you may have to wait until Luna clears your local horizon. Check out these two misconceptions this week and prove these fallacies for yourself. Ad Astra!

1386

MARCH 12, 2023: Is It Time for Permanent Daylight Saving Time?

We passed the winter solstice on December 21, 2022, then the latest sunrise on January 4, heard about six more weeks of winter from Punxsutawney Phil on February 2, left meteorological winter on March 1, and now we have sprung ahead into daylight saving time. The next stop on the express train towards summer is the vernal equinox, March 20, and finally the pinnacle of all hills on the seasonal climb, the summer solstice or "sun still" where Sol will have reached its highest yearly position north of the equator while located over the Tropic of Cancer on June 21. * Now is that time of the year when we all begin the myth of saving daylight by shifting our clocks ahead by 60 minutes, when in reality sunset occurs an hour later, but so does sunrise. There was no 2-3 a.m. on Sunday morning, but the piper will be paid when we fall back an hour to standard time on the first Sunday in November, or will daylight saving time (DST) become permanent? * Senate Bill 623 named the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 attempted to make DST permanent across the US. It was introduced by Marco Rubio of Florida and passed the Senate by unanimous consent on March 15, 2022. The Congressional Record states that, "This bill would make daylight savings time the new permanent standard time. States with areas exempt from daylight savings time may choose the standard time for those areas." An identical bill, H.R. 69 was introduced by Florida House of Representative, Vern Buchanan, on January 4, 2021, but failed to make it to a vote before the 117th Congressional Session ended on January 3, 2023. Just to set the Congressional Record straight, there is no "s" in daylight saving time. * According to Rubio, "There's some strong science behind it that is now showing and making people aware of the harm that clock switching has. We see an increase in heart attacks and car accidents and pedestrian accidents in the week[s] that follow the changes. Lehigh Valley Hospital Network Primary Care physician, Natalie M. Bieber, DO, supports these views saying, "Studies show the time change increases your risk for accidents and heart attacks, including a 5.7 percent increase in workplace injuries the Monday after daylight saving time starts. Another study found that the number of heart attacks rose by five percent the first few days after the clock change." Rubio also touts decreased crime rates when there is light later in the day and a decrease in child obesity when kids during the winter months can stay out longer to play because of the later sunsets. It gets difficult in many parts of the country to be able to do that when the sun sets so early in the day, 4:34 p.m. for the Lehigh Valley by early December. When I was up on Maine's Schoodic Peninsula many years ago on a winter vacation, the sun set at 3:59 p.m. * However, not everyone agrees. The National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) in April of 1976 found no significant energy savings or differences in traffic fatalities except for children waiting for school buses during the subdued light of dawn in states where DST was enacted throughout the entire year, and the sun rose one hour later. Before January of 1974 under the Uniform Time Act (1966), states could maintain standard time throughout the entire year. With 34 states currently wanting to make daylight saving time permanent, it does seem more likely that we are moving ever closer to establishing DST permanently across the US. I personally like the idea since I normally get to bed late and would like that extra hour of light permanently attached to the end of the day. This is despite opposition from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the World Sleep Society. Go figure! Ad Astra!

Left to right: Joshua Swain, Joshneil Ferguson, and Victor Rivera view Venus (higher) and Jupiter from Moravian University's Sky Deck on March 9. Image by Gary A. Becker using a Pixel 7 Pro...

1387 MARCH 19, 2023: The Season of Brightness Begins: There is nothing more depressing to me then the autumnal equinox, followed about 40 days later by Halloween. The sun is on the downslide, and darkness is the byword. A few days later, we slip into standard time causing the sun to set an hour earlier, making driving times more difficult in the deepening twilight at the end of a working day. * Humans crave sunlight. Without it, we become depressed. During winter in the Scandinavian countries, suicide rates increase because the sun is embedded into our psyches. For daily rejuvenation during winter, Alaskans build sunrooms, then flood them with artificial light similar to the color temperature of the sun. They also enjoy taking two-week jaunts to Hawaii to ward off the negative effects of the darkness. Illnesses spike in the colder weather because we become sequestered indoors, breathing each other's air and transmitting diseases more readily. * However, there is good news. For the next six months the Northern Hemisphere will be basking in the light. The sun joyously dances across the equator on Monday, March 20 at 4:23 p.m., EDT, balancing for one day, light and darkness equally for the entire planet. Then Sol will rapidly move northward favoring the Northern Hemisphere, while its influence wanes south of the equator. It is finally springtime! * These seasonal changes are a result of the tilt of the Earth's axis, the imaginary line about which our planet rotates (spins) to its orbital path around the sun (the ecliptic), as well as the condition that the pointing direction of the axis remains essentially stationary. This forces the sun to shine directly above and below the equator, which represents the rotational plane of the Earth. The deviation is the same amount that our axis is tilted. * Our Earth's equator is slanted by 23.5 degrees from its orbital plane which means that Sol will continue to move northward until it has reached 23.5 degrees north of the equator, a position called the Tropic of Cancer. On this day, Wednesday, June 21, the Lehigh Valley will be flooded with sunshine for nearly 15 hours, while for residents living just north of Fairbanks, Alaska on the Arctic Circle, which is 23.5 degrees south of the North Pole, the sun will not set at all. At the top of the world, Sol remains visible for a period of six months, causing Santa's toy production to spike during this period of continuous light. Rumor has it that he has gone completely solar. * Watch the sun's noontime altitude climb during the next three months and note how shadows will be shortening during the period of high sun. Watch its rising locations becoming more and more to the north of east as the sun moves northward towards the Tropic of Cancer. Sol's setting positions will also move to the north of west. This is indeed the start of the season of brightness. Happy Spring to all who favor the light. Ad Astra!

1388 MARCH 26, 2023: "Wild Commas": This Peanuts cartoon (below) by "Sparky," Charles Schultz, was published in the Morning Call several weeks ago. It brought back memories of the discussions that my fiancée and I had many years ago when I was first starting to edit and publish articles. I never got a "D" in English but every grade, except for one "B" that I received in high school, was always a "C." It was discouraging, to say the least. However, I had the luck of falling in love with an English teacher, the future Susan Becker, who helped me immeasurably with my writing, except for my tendency to use "wild commas" in my writing. Here is the best part of an article that we wrote in November of 1981 when I was giving up the editorship of a national newsletter called The Reflector. Susan was my assistant editor, and the grammarian who saved my butt issue after issue.