Astrology Quarterly - Astronomy - Heavens Above

A S Morton

Heavens Above - March 2007

Planetwatch - March 2007

The Sun has been taking a pretty low profile so far this year as he’s been in the Southern hemisphere warming them up nicely I’m sure. However, this month he’s arriving back in the Northern hemisphere, crossing the celestial equator travelling north at 00:07am GMT on the 21st of March, the Vernal (Spring) Equinox.

Night and Day are of equal length (theoretically) on this day, the Sun rises due East, is due South at midday and sets due West. Locate the north star, Polaris, after dark using the two end “pointer” stars of the familiar Plough up in the nightskies and you’ve then got your four cardinal points set for the whole year ahead.

In the tropical zodiac it’s another fresh start at 0? Aries even if up in the heavens this is taking place at the beginning of the constellation of Pisces. That’s the effects of precession for you, the wobble of the Earth’s axis primarily caused by our gravitational interactions with the Moon and Sun, such is their influence upon us. Never mind, only another 24,000 years to go, roughly, and it’ll all line up again.

And just to let us know that Spring has really arrived the clocks go forward in the UK just a few days later on 25th March at 01:00am, “spring forward…”.

A few days before the Equinox we even have a partial eclipse of the Sun on the 19th although this one is not visible from the UK or Europe.

However, it is to our lifelong companion, the Moon, that we must look to see the year’s most spectacular heavenly event when there is a Total Eclipse of the Moon on the 3rd of March which, weather permitting (as always), will be entirely visible from all over the UK and Europe. This is when the Full Moon slips into the dark shadow of the Earth (the ‘umbra’) and disappears from view for about an hour, an eerie sight indeed, certainly to ancient peoples the world over who relied upon the Moon, especially in the days around Full Moon, for light during the hours of darkness.

Because of the Moon’s orbital inclination of 5.1° to that of our own orbit around the Sun (the ecliptic) the three bodies don’t line-up at every Full Moon. However, when they do it’s well worth staying up for, particularly if it’s a clear night, i.e if the Earth’s atmosphere is clear, because then we might see the incredible sight of a “blood red” Full Moon. Or rather, more an dusty pink Full Moon which is very lovely anyway. This effect is caused by refraction of sunlight around the Earth’s globe and through the Earth’s atmosphere which bends it such that it shines on the Moon and is thus reflected back down to us, “earthshine” so-called.

The main action starts around 9:30pm GMT as it will appear as if someone or something begins eating into the Moon, like the proverbial big lump of cheese, until around 10:44pm when we get totality (watch out for the pinky-red glow!) for just over an hour (not just a very few minutes like the Solar Eclipses) until just before the midnight hour at 11:58pm. The Moon will then reconstruct herself until about 01:12am on the 4th when she leaves the umbra. By 02:25 she will depart the penumbra (the outer grey shadow) and be back to her radiant self. Definitely one for the diaries.

Of course if you were on the Moon, as some of us may well be as space tourists in a decade or two’s time, you would be able to enjoy the amazing sight of a Total Eclipse of the Sun for a good hour or so as the Sun would appear to slide gently behind mother Earth in the distance. I wonder if you might get that ‘diamond ring’ effect of the eclipsed Sun with a halo around the Earth? That would be worth paying Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic round-trip price for, whatever that might turn out to be, wouldn’t it? It’s currently around $200,000 to fly sub-orbital from 2009 onwards but, hey, this is only the very beginning!

Mercury is just such a tease! He arrives at greatest western elongation on the 22nd at his very maximum of 28°W this time and should be a fanatastic morning object but he’s playing hide-and-seek and is too far south of the Sun and so low down to the horizon that we’re probably not going to catch him on this one. How frustrating!

Venus is getting into her full routine now, increasing in brightness and setting about three hours or so after the Sun in the west. She’s so bright sometimes that it’s hard to accept that it really is her up there in the evening twilight but it is! Before it gets dark, just after the Sun has gone down and while there’s still the evening twilight you can spot her quite clearly higher up in the sky from where the Sun has just set. What a dazzling apparition she is. Now look over to the opposite side of the sky in an easterly direction and there’s Saturn, already risen and shining a dullish yellow through the evening gloom but also clearly visible. What a splendid couple they make together up there in the heavens above, strange bedfellows though they may seem to some. I think it probably depends on your perspective on Saturn. He may not be as showy as some others but ‘up close and personal’ he really is the most beautiful planet in our solar system, with almost a serene calmness about him, quite soulful looking, very restful on the mind and the spirit as it were.

Mars would be hard to spot in the morning twilight as he maintains his low profile in Capricornus.

Jupiter continues to rise earlier, an hour or so after midnight, and is now noticably increasing in brightness as we get closer to each other.

Saturn is staying strong and steady and is high in the south in the early evening skies. However, as soon as Jupiter has risen high enough you can spot the difference in brightness – no contest really as Saturn sidles off west towards the setting horizon in the early hours.

Uranus and Neptune are not generally naked-eye objects.

A S Morton