Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday March 17th through Sunday March 23rd.
The moon is at last quarter early in the morning of Saturday the 22nd, so we’ll have a waning gibbous moon for most of the week and start into the waning crescent at the end of the week.
Venus is in inferior conjunction with the Sun on Saturday when it will pass between the Earth and the Sun and then will re-emerge in our morning skies over the next few weeks.
Mercury is very close to the Sun and will also pass between the Earth and the Sun early next week.
Jupiter is high in the southwest at sunset and is setting at 1:30 a.m.
Mars nearly overhead as the sky darkens after sunset and is setting at 4:15 a.m. Near to Mars are the stars Castor and Pollux of the constellation Gemini the Twins.
Saturn is just emerging from solar conjunction and is lost in the Sun’s glare. Early on Sunday morning, Earth will pass to the south side of the plane of the rings of Saturn, so if we were able to see the planet, we would see the rings edge-on and mostly disappear from view for a short time. After the ring plane crossing this year, the rings will increase in tilt until they reach a maximum of 27 degrees in May 2032. After that they will once again move towards edge on until the next ring plane crossing in 2039 when we will cross to the north side of the rings.
The vernal equinox for the northern hemisphere occurs at 4:01 a.m. on March 20th for the US central time zone marking the start of spring. This is the point where the sun crosses the celestial equator (which is the projection of the Earth’s equator onto the sky) and the amount of daylight and night are approximately equal. For the northern hemisphere the amount of daylight will continue to grow until the June solstice. For our friends in the southern hemisphere, the date will mark the start of autumn, and the amount of daylight will continue to shrink until the next solstice.
There will be no public viewing nights on UT campus telescopes this week during Spring Break. The regular schedule on Wednesdays at the Physics, Math, and Astronomy building and Fridays and Saturdays at Painter Hall will resume next week.
Thank you for calling the University of Texas Skywatchers Report.
