Jared May: What's Up, March 10-March 17

This week will bring us some warmer temperatures (finally things are starting to feel like spring) before a cold weekend. Along with the warm temperatures, it looks like this week will also be bringing a decent amount of clouds. The cloud coverage is forecast to drop off a little towards the weekend, so maybe there will be more gaps in the clouds to do some quick stargazing.

Sunset this week occurs right around 6:30 PM, all the way until Daylight Saving Time begins this Sunday which will shift sunset to 7:30 PM. If there are clear skies, be on the lookout for some deep-sky galaxies, a good starting place for Messier object hunting, and the rising Big Dipper.

It is not spring just yet, but the night sky is starting to reveal its seasonal treasures – deep-sky galaxies. In the summer months the night sky is filled with the stars and dust of the core of the Milky Way. In the spring we face far enough away from the most crowded parts of our galaxy so we are able to see much deeper in space (an unhindered view). Most of these galaxies are several millions of light-years away and appear relatively small in the sky. For this reason, galaxies aren’t great target for binoculars. A small telescope with a moderately long focal length (anything over 800mm) will help pick out some of the brighter ones. There are some really impressive spiral galaxies to spy through a telescope, like M101 (a.k.a. the Pinwheel Galaxy). This is a face-on spiral, meaning we can easily see all of the spiral arms that give a galaxy its classic look. M101 shines at magnitude 7.9 and is much easier to spot than other galaxies due to its brightness and size. There are so many more galaxies waiting to be seen in the spring skies than just M101.

The glorious face-on spiral galaxy, M101, also called “The Pinwheel.” It lies in a patch of sky near the end of the “handle” of the Big Dipper

Many of the spring galaxies are given the name designation “Messier object ###”. This designation also applies to many other deep-sky objects, like nebulae. There are 110 total Messier objects (109 if you consider that one is a “lost” observation) that span the sky, across all four seasons. The great thing about Messier objects is that they are bright and make fantastic targets for stargazers with binoculars and telescopes as well as for astrophotographers. The original list of these objects was compiled by Charles Messier in the 1700s who was essentially listing off all “fuzzy” objects in the sky that weren’t comets. The loads of galaxies up in the spring (lots of them are Messier objects) will then transition into the even greater summer collection of Messier objects. So spring is a great time to start finding them all!

The many "Messier Objects” in the spring sky.

Owing to a quirk of positioning, with the sun occupying a “gap” in the collection of Messier Objects, Mid-March is one time of year in which a dedicated (and perhaps a little crazy) observer can spot all 110 of them if conditions are favorable. Amateur Astronomers call such a feat a “Messier Marathon.”

After the sun sets turn towards the northeast and you will see the iconic Big Dipper strung sideways in the sky. The handle arcs to one of the brightest stars in the sky, Arcturus, the front two stars on the bowl point to the north star, and there is a unique double star found in this constellation. When you find the Big Dipper, look at the second star from the end of the handle, can you see a double star? Seeing this double star (Alcor and Mizar) is a “poor man’s” test for 20/20 vision.

The Big Dipper, with the “eye test” stars Mizar and Alor pointed out with a marker.

The warm weather has unfortunately decided to coincide with mostly cloudy skies. There may still be some decent gaps in the clouds that will be enough for some quick stargazing. If this is the case be sure to grab your binoculars and a telescope and begin hunting for spring-time galaxies, Messier objects, and test your vision with the Alcor-Mizar double star in the Big Dipper.

Until next week, Clear Skies!