Welcome to the March night sky. This is the month of the spring equinox, when the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading north. It marks the end of winter in the northern hemisphere and also the time when day and night are of equal length the world over.
This month we only have two bright planets visible in the early evening sky. Jupiter setting in the west soon after sunset and Saturn rising in the east, as Jupiter is setting in the west. Saturn is in the constellation of Libra and Jupiter is in Taurus.
The first week in March should be our chance to catch a glimpse of the first of the two possibly bright comets to be seen in 2013.
The oddly named Panstarrs comet is a fascinating object as it is visiting the inner solar system for the first time. It is a member of a vast group of icy objects from the region of our solar system beyond the orbit of Pluto; this region is called the Ort Cloud and contains material left over from the primordial nebula of dust, gas and ice that formed our solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
If you look over to the south-western and western horizon soon after darkness, you should spot the tail of the Panstarrs comet pointing away from the Sun and up in the direction of Jupiter.
On March 10, the comet is at its closest to the Sun at 48 million kilometres, and the tail may stretch up to one hand’s width above the horizon. This tail is made from the dust blown off the comet by sunlight pressure and should be yellowish in colour, but there may also be a bluish tail made from ionised gas from vaporised ice.
The two-day old crescent Moon should be very near to the head of the comet on the 13th, the Moon is also near to Jupiter on the 17th and near to Saturn on the 29th. Normally you do not need any kind of optical aid to see comets of this brightness, although a small pair of binoculars may help.
There is no danger of any collision with this comet or any other comets in the foreseeable future, unlike the meteor impact that struck Russia on the 15th of last month.
This object was 50 metres across, had a mass of around 10,000 tons and luckily exploded high in the atmosphere due to its shallow angle of entry.
The moon is at last quarter on the 4th, new on the 11th, first quarter on the 19th and full on March 27.
Download the Algarve Skies Chart by clicking on the link below to download a PDF of the chart.
http://www.the-resident.com/portugalresident/pdf/ALGARVE_RESIDENT_ALGARVE_SKIES_MARCH_2013.pdf
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Clive Jackson is the Director of the Camera Obscura (next to the Castle in Tavira), specialising in education and public outreach. 281 322 527 | www.cdepa.pt
