Skywatch February & March 2012
Four planets, bright stars, and falling stars all highlight March and April 2012. Just as the sky grows dark two bright planets become visible in the western sky. The brighter of the two and the first star-like object to appear is Venus, the third brightest natural object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. Lower, closer to the horizon, and a little fainter but still bright is the largest of all the planets, Jupiter. In mid-March these two planet will appear fairly close together in the early evening sky. To the south of Venus is a bright red star, Aldebaran, the red right eye of Taurus, the Bull.
Once the sky grows darker, look to the east and high in the sky will be a bright red star-like object. This is the planet Mars. Mars will be at "opposition" on March 3rd, meaning it will be opposite the Sun as seen from the Earth. The red planet will be at its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. This is the best time to view and photograph Mars. Slightly to the west of Mars is the bright star Regulus, the heart of Leo the Lion.
Regulus is also the point at the base of a backwards question mark. The top of the question mark is Leo's head and a triangle of fainter stars toward the East marks the Lion's hind quarters and tail. Don't worry if you cannot see a Lion here, most people can't either, but you should be able to find the backwards question mark.
Leo is one of the twelve star groups or constellations of the zodiac. The zodiac is a band of constellations which encircles the sky and it is to the zodiac that we must look to find the planets.
Rising in the east as the Sun is setting in the west is Saturn. Saturn will be at opposition on April 14th. The ringed planet will be at its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. It is just a coincidence that both Mars and Saturn are at opposition during these two months.
Just west of Saturn and higher in the sky is the bright star Spica. Spica is a grain of wheat being held in the hand of Virgo, the Goddess of the Harvest. Virgo is another of the twelve constellations of the zodiac.
The bright stars that dominated the sky during the past several months now appear in the west in the early evening. Seven bright stars that form Orion, the Hunter. Two stars form his shoulders (bright red Betelgeuse and Bellatrix), two more his knees (Saiph and the very bright Rigel) and three his belt. Orion is not alone in his celestial hunt. By Orion's feet are his two hunting dogs. Canis Major the Big Dog is easy to find. Look for the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, and you have found the Big Dog. Between Sirius and Orion is a somewhat fainter star, this is Procyon and Canis Minor, the Little Dog.
Above Procyon in the Little Dog and Betelgeuse in Orion, look for two bright stars nearby each other and of about the same brightness. They almost look like twin stars, and in fact these two stars, Castor and Pollux, mark the heads of the Gemini Twins.
The night of April 21st- 22nd is the maximum of the Lyrid meteor shower. On a clear dark night you may see a twenty or so meteors or shooting stars per hour. While that is not an overwhelming number, it does mean that you are more likely to see a shooting star, especially if you look between midnight and dawn. We see a meteor when a pebble sized piece of cosmic debris races through the Earth's atmosphere some 30-50 miles above the Earth. The friction of the air causes the pebble to heat up and we see it as a streak of light. When you see one, usually by the time you say to a friend "look over there", the shooting star is gone.
