The Sky This Week from March 13 to 20 – Astronomy Magazine
Zodiacal light at Veronica
The zodiacal light shines above Veronica, Argentina, on an early morning in March 2012. This light comes from dust in the solar system’s ecliptic plane, left there by comets over time.
Luis Argerich (Flickr)
This Friday the 13th, consider that the idea of martians living on and shaping the Red Planet was once commonly held even by professional astronomers. Today is the 165th anniversary of the birth of Percival Lowell in 1855. In addition to founding the observatory that today bears his name in Flagstaff, Arizona, Lowell was also a proponent of the idea that dark, blurry line-like features on Mars were plants that had sprung up along the edges of martian-built canals.
Today, our search for martian life is largely limited to looking for ancient microorganisms in soil and rock samples taken by rovers such as Curiosity. But you can examine the famous Red Planet for yourself early this morning if you’re willing to rise before the Sun. An hour before the Sun crosses the horizon, magnitude 1 Mars will stand 17° above the southeast horizon, to the left of Sagittarius’ familiar teapot asterism.
Saturday, March 14
Asteroid 27 Euterpe reaches opposition at 2 P.M. EDT today. You can find it in the evening sky in the constellation Virgo, already above the horizon at sunset and climbing higher overhead. Wait for full darkness before hunting this magnitude 9.4 asteroid, which lies just over twice as far from the Sun as Earth. You’ll need a moderate-size telescope to spot it a little less than 2° southwest of magnitude 2 Nu (ν) Virginis.
Sunday, March 15
The month of March is a great time to try observing the zodiacal light — light scattered by the dust left along the ecliptic plane by long-ago comets. Step outside at a dark site after twilight and look for a roughly cone-shaped glow in the west. Although dim, you may be able to trace the zodiacal light as it stretches through Pisces, low on the horizon, up through Aries and Taurus. If you can’t spot it at first, try using peripheral vision to look at the region next to where you expect the zodiacal light to appear; it might pop up more easily at the corner of your field of view.
Monday, March 16
Last Quarter Moon occurs at 5:34 A.M. EDT. If you’re up before sunrise, you can spot our satellite as it hangs in the southeast between the brightest stars in Sagittarius, which sits low on the horizon, and Ophiuchus, higher in the sky.
