March Skies

We end February and go into March with an exciting discovery. 

NASA announced a breakthrough addition to the catalog of new planets. Researchers using Kepler have confirmed 715 new worlds, almost quadrupling the number of planets previously confirmed by the planet-hunting spacecraft. Some of the new worlds are similar in size to Earth and orbit in the habitable zone of their parent stars.
 

   

Since February 25th there have been 5 X4.9 events.  The last one being on March 1st.  This is highly unusual!

This might explain all the phone data issues and internet troubles you may have been having for the past week.

March 3rd - Images of our Sun today


 

For More information on the suns activity, check out these sites.

 Spaceweather.com 

SOHO Solar Observatory

Space.com 

  

March 2nd - 27th

Asteroid Watch
According to Astro Bob, "The Asteroid 2 Pallas was the second asteroid discovered back in the days when asteroids were so few and novel they were called planets. German astronomer Heinrich Olbers accidentally ran across it while attempting to find another asteroid, Ceres, on March 28, 1802. This week you can see Pallas at its brightest in two decades as it treks from Sextans into Hydra the Water Snake during convenient evening viewing hours. With the asteroid shining at around magnitude 7 – just one level fainter than naked eye visibility." 

All you need are clear Dark skies, a pair of binoculars, a sky map (like Google sky phone ap.)


March 8th  We  Spring forward into Daylight Savings Time.
Don't forget to set your clocks before you go to bed Saturday night!

  


March 16 - Full Moon Is known as the Full Worm Moon

As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.

March 20th Vernal Equinox -  First day of Spring (Northern Hemisphere).

This season brings increasing daylight, warming temperatures, and the rebirth of flora and fauna.

The word equinox is derived from the Latin words meaning “equal night.” Days and nights are approximately equal everywhere and the Sun rises and sets due east and west.

At the equinoxes, the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun. (However, the tilt of Earth relative to its plane of orbit, called the ecliptic plane, is always about 23.5 degrees.)



March 30
For the second time this year we are having a Black Moon.  That is 2 new moons in the same month. 

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