March 28: Solar Eclipse
The Sun will briefly wink out of sight tomorrow along a narrow
path across Africa, Europe, and Asia as the result of a total solar
eclipse. Those of us in North America, though, are out of luck,
because the eclipse takes place during the nighttime hours.
By the University of Texas McDonald Observatory
March 28: Solar Eclipse
The Sun will briefly wink out of sight tomorrow along a narrow path across Africa, Europe, and Asia as the result of a total solar eclipse. Those of us in North America, though, are out of luck, because the eclipse takes place during the nighttime hours.
March 29: Denebola
Leo, the lion, puts in a good showing at this time of year. A triangle of three fairly bright stars forms his hindquarters and tail. The brightest of the three, which is closest to the horizon, is called Denebola, a name that means “the tail of the lion.”
March 30: Crescent Moon
Few sights in the night sky are more beautiful than a “fingernail” crescent Moon. There’s one on view the next couple of nights, quite low in the west at sunset. The Moon sets about an hour and a half after the Sun tonight, and about an hour later than that tomorrow night.
March 31: Arcturus
Most of the stars that decorate the night sky don’t show much color. One that does is Arcturus. It shines a vivid yellow-orange. It’s easy to see because Arcturus is the second-brightest star in the night sky that’s visible from most of the United States.
April 1: Moon and Pleiades
The crescent Moon plows across one of the most famous objects in the heavens tonight: the Pleiades star cluster. They’re high in the west at nightfall, and set in late evening. Depending on the time and your location, you might see the Moon just below the star cluster, just above it, or actually covering up some of its stars. No matter what the exact circumstances are, though, it’ll be a beautiful show.
April 2: Three Herdsmen
There’s more than one way to draw a constellation. You can pull out your scientific instruments and draw precise boundaries, making every constellation a well-defined patch of sky. You can play “connect-the-dots” with several bright stars to create a picture of an animal or a person. Or you can let a single star represent that same figure.
April 3: Moon and Mars
The Moon has a prominent companion tonight – Mars. The planet looks like a bright orange star just below the Moon as they drop down the western sky during the evening.
Mars is the most intensely studied planet other than our own. But it’s revealing its secrets at a slow pace – even at the spots where landers and rovers have studied the planet in detail.
