Charlotte Astronomy and Sky Watcher Highlights this week. March 8th-14th

Thank you to NASA ambassador Tony Rice for providing the weekly Astronomical highlights for Charlotte.

You can connect with Tony right here

Highlights

• Throughout March Jupiter will be prominent high in the SE sky after sunset and remaining visible almost all night.
• Venus will also be very bright in the glow of the setting sun.
• Will also be visible at sunset below Venus. The planets will have more angular distance between them as the week goes on.
• Saturn will be high in the Southern sky before dawn.

• Thu Mar 05 13:05:23: full moon

March full moon names

• Fish Moon (Colonial American)
• Sleepy Moon (Chinese)
• Windy Moon (Cherokee)
• Big Famine Moon (Choctaw)
• Moon When Eyes Are Sore from Bright Snow (Dakota Sioux)
• Moon of Winds (Celtic)
• Chaste Moon (English Medieval)
• Death Moon (Pagan)
• Worm Moon, Crow Moon, Crust Moon, Sap Moon, Lenten Moon (Farmers Almanac)

Planet visibility

Sample rise/set times for 03/02/15

Satellite passes

International Space Station (ISS)

• outstanding pass begins Tue 2015-03-10 07:11:17 from the SW (223°) reaches 65°, lasts 6 minutes
• fair pass begins Wed 2015-03-11 06:19:22 from the SSW (194°) reaches 31°, lasts 5 minutes
• good pass begins Thu 2015-03-12 07:01:40 from the WSW (249°) reaches 52°, lasts 6 minutes
• exceptional pass begins Fri 2015-03-13 06:10:56 from the SW (221°) reaches 79°, lasts 4 minutes
• poor pass begins Sat 2015-03-14 05:20:10 from the E (85°) reaches 38°, lasts 2 minute
• poor pass begins Sat 2015-03-14 06:52:46 from the W (277°) reaches 27°, lasts 5 minutes
• fair pass begins Sun 2015-03-15 06:01:52 from the NW (323°) reaches 44°, lasts 3 minutes

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

no visible HST passes predicted during this period

See Heavens Above for the latest pass predictions. Satellite pass gradings are based on altitude reached and duration of pass. Higher altitude passes are closers to the observer and generally brighter as a result. Satellites other than ISS are much more difficult to spot.

Moon Phases

Sun

Sunrise/set

• gained 0:23:55 (hh:mm:ss) of daylight over this period
• daylight (HH:MM): 11:31
• mean: sunrise 07:13 sunset 18:44
• max: sun angle 45.99°

Twilight

Astronomical Seasons

• vernal equinox: Fri 2015-03-20 18:45
• summer solstice: Sun 2015-06-21 12:38

Meteor Showers

Meteor Showers Underway this period

Next Major Meteor Showers

see: International Meteor Organization calendar for details. ZHR is a rough prediction and represents optimal viewing conditions (clear dark sky, radiant directly overhead). Green rows are the best viewing

Aerospace Calendar

Launches

History

• Mar 02 Peale, Cassen, and Reynolds boldly predict, in the journal Science, that Jupiter’s moon, Io, will have active volcanism, based on their analysis of the internal tides that Jupiter and Europa would raise within it. In the scientific equivalent of Babe Ruth’s “Called Shot,” they would be proved correct in the most dramatic fashion when Voyager 1 flew by Io a mere one week later. 36 years ago
• Mar 03 Inventor Alexander Graham Bell born 168 years ago
• Mar 05 Soviet probe Venera 14 returned color images of the venusian surface. 33 years ago
• Mar 09 Launch of Sputnik 9, carrying canine passenger named “Chernushka” (“Blackie”), who was recovered successfully later that day. Mice, a guinea pig, and a astronaut manikin were also included on the flight. Chernushka was one of at least 13 dogs sent into Space during the early Russian space program; several, including Chernushka, are featured on Russian postage stamps of the era. 54 years ago
• Mar 09 Linda Morabito (Kelly), navigation engineer for the Voyager 1 spacecraft flying by Jupiter, noticed an odd ‘bump’ on Jupiter’s moon, Io, in a navigation image acquired on March 8. It proved to be the plume of an active volcano, predicted boldly in print a mere one week before the flyby, the scientific equivalent of Babe Ruth’s famed ‘Called Shot.’ 36 years ago
• Mar 10 The “Fountains of Enceladus” were described in a paper published this date in the journal, Science. They are likely to be plumes of water vapor/ice particles geysered from the interior of Enceladus. 9 years ago
• Mar 11 Launch of Pioneer 5, designed to measure conditions in interplanetary space between Earth and Venus. 55 years ago
• Mar 11 Launch of STS-123 Space Shuttle Endeavour on the 25th shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to deliver Dextre, a two-armed Canadian robotic system, and the first components of the Japanese Kibo Module. Onboard are astronauts Dominic L. Gorie, commander; Gregory H. Johnson, pilot; Richard M. Linnehan, Robert L. Behnken, Garrett E. Reisman, Michael J. Foreman and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Takao Doi, all mission specialists. 7 years ago
• Mar 11 The longest extra-vehicular activity (EVA) to date was 8 hours and 56 minutes, performed by Susan J. Helms and James S. Voss during Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-102. 14 years ago

Covers Mon 2015-03-02 01:00 through Thu 2015-03-12 01:00 . Calculations are for Charlotte, NC (40.3690,-80.6330) at an elevation of 215 m and are expressed in local (US/Eastern) time and a 24 hour clock.