CDAA

Written by David Pugh

I hope you are all keeping well. Next Thursday Mar 6th at 7.30pm will be CDAA's monthly meeting. Our Chairman Mike Haynes will be giving an illustrated talk "Latest Astronomical Research" from around the world. Should be something of interest to everyone. After tea/coffee and the raffle I will then give a Stellarium software presentation on the night sky this month which looks very interesting. Hope to see you there.

In the sky this month there is a lot happening including a partial solar eclipse visible across Britain as well as a lunar eclipse as the Moon is setting.

Mercury, the inner-most planet,(mag -0.9) is at its evening best for the year. It rises to 8 degrees above the western horizon after sunset in the first half of March. Binoculars are useful for this but make sure the Sun is below the horizon before searching. On March 1st a slim crescent Moon lies above Mercury and below Venus making a great photo opportunity. Dazzling Venus (mag -4.2) may be seen low in the west after sunset for the first half of March before passing through inferior conjunction on 23 March. A telescope will show its thin crescent.

Mars, the red planet, (mag +0.1), remains well placed high in Gemini all month. It makes a lovely triangle with Castor and Pollux at the start of the month. Mars lies 1.7 degrees south of the Moon on the 9th. A 100mm scope will give a good view of the planet. Red and orange filters can be helpful in spotting surface features. Jupiter, king of the planets, (mag -2.3), continues to shine like a beacon high in the evening sky in Taurus, above orange Aldebaran. On the 6th Jupiter is 6 degrees south of the Moon. Even a pair of binoculars shows its globe and its 4 galilean moons, often in a line. A telescope shows much more detail including its equatorial belts and the famous but shrinking Great Red Spot plus, occasionally, the transit of one of its moons across its surface. Well worth keeping an eye on.

Saturn, the lovely ringed planet passes through conjunction with the Sun on 12 March and is not on view this month. The ice giant Uranus (mag +5.8) is on the border of Aries with Taurus. It can still be observed early evening in the first half of March with binoculars but you will need a telescope to resolve its small greenish disc. Neptune, the furthest planet is not on view this month.

On the morning of Saturday March 29 there will be a partial eclipse of the Sun with over 50% of the Sun covered by the Moon. Eclipse times vary across the UK but you should get ready for this from before 10am and it lasts around 2 hours. Maximum will be around 11am. A pair of binoculars or a small telescope can be used to project the solar disc onto white card as you should never look directly at the Sun.

There will also be a lunar eclipse before dawn on March 14th but, unfortunately, as the Moon is setting. The Moon will be immersed in Earth's deepest shadow from 5.09GMT when the Moon's SW hemisphere is blacked out but totality occurs when the Moon has already set.

Still nothing happening concerning the possible imminent outburst of the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis currently at mag 10 as I have been keeping an eye on this area with binoculars.. If it does outburst in the next few weeks, it now rises before midnight in the NE. It last outburst in 1946 reaching mag 3.0 and mag 2.0 in 1866 when it was discovered. It is nicknamed the "Blaze Star"

All of the deep sky objects and constellations mentioned in the last two months are still well placed for observing, including Orion culminating at around 19.00UT at the start of the month. This month, I would like to look at Monoceros the Unicorn and Canis Major the Great Dog. Monoceros is a large but faint sprawling constellation to the east of Orion. Although it has no stars brighter than Beta at mag 3.7, it has several interesting deep-sky objects. The most spectacular for imaging but not visually is the huge Rosette Nebula NGC 2237-39, an emission nebula spanning 1.3 degrees! In astro-images it does indeed look like a pink rosette but with a hole at its centre created by the cluster of massive hot young stars of NGC 2244, the part of this object visible through amateur telescopes. Then some 4 degrees to the NE lies the Christmas Tree Cluster NGC 2264 looking, from the UK, like an upside christmas tree. It's base comprises the giant multiple star 15 Mon and, at the "tree's" top lies the famous 7 light year high Cone Nebula, a dark cone-shaped absorption nebula in front of a faint emission. nebula. Lastly in Monoceros there is M50 a mag 5.9 open star cluster comprising some 80 stars spanning 16' in diameter.

Further south near to our southern horizon we find Canis Major. You can't miss it as it contains the brightest star in the whole sky - Sirius at mag -1.46. It is this bright as it is a nearby neighbour only 8 lys away. 4 degrees below Sirius you will find the nice open star cluster M41 at mag 4.5. It comprises some 80 stars spread over an area 38' wide. Finally, as a challenge for imagers, there is the Seagull Nebula IC 2177 on the border of Canis Major with Monoceros. At some 2.5 degrees long you will need a small refractor or telephoto lens to get this large emission nebula all in but it is very faint.

Good Hunting and I hope to see you next Thursday evening at the society's monthly meeting.

Best Regards

David