Jared May: What's Up The first Week of March, 2021

Grab your telescopes and binoculars this week because Ohio is forecasted to see several clear nights! There are some fluctuations in the forecast but, fingers crossed, the timing might work out for great viewing.

If you decide to pay the clear night skies a visit, the temperature (with windchill) will still be pretty cold- in the 20’s. So wear layers.

Sunset this week is right around 6:20 PM which means that all of the stars and deep-sky objects will be visible around an hour later, at 7:20 PM.

This week will bring us an exciting matchup between Mars and the Pleiades, the third quarter moon, a Jupiter-Mercury conjunction, and some early morning International Space Station flyovers. (Below, we’ll tall about how to snag a photo of it).

All this week, if you look a little more than 30° above the western horizon, you will notice a bright red Mars and a faint fuzzy Pleiades neck and neck in the night sky. A pair of binoculars or a wide-field telescope is perfect for observing this event. A low power scope will not be able to resolve the details of the Martian surface, but it will be enough to start resolving more of the fainter stars that are part of the Pleiades open cluster. A picture of this conjunction will be very impressive, especially if you are able to capture the vivid red of Mars in contrast to the bright blue of the star cluster.

Mars will appear close to the Pleaides star cluster this week. You should be able to see both at the same time in a pair of binoculars.

The tail end of this week will give us the third quarter moon. This is a double green checkmark night for observers; clear skies and a “late moon”. So not only are the skies free of clouds, but they are also clear of the bright light from the moon. If you are up late enough to see the third quarter moon, it will look incredible under low power binoculars or telescope – the craters and lunar seas will pop.

The less familiar third quarter moon will rise late in the evening at the end of the week.

Friday will bring the conjunction of the inner planet Mercury and the gas giant Jupiter. They will be roughly half a degree apart in the sky. The catch is that this event is only visible in the early morning (between 6 and 6:30 AM). So if you get up early for work, take a peak above the eastern horizon to see the two planets. If you look 15° further south from the conjunction, you will come across Saturn.

Early risers with clear eastern horizons will be able to pick up Mercury and Jupiter as they appear side-by-side just before dawn.

The International Space Station (ISS) is an orbiting science laboratory designed to house astronauts for long-term missions. With the solar panels, the whole station is about as large as a football field! The large solar panels make excellent mirrors and can reflect lots of sunlight back down to earth. For someone on earth, the ISS reflecting sunlight looks like an airplane but without the blinking lights. The next passes are as follows: Mar 4, 5:55 AM visible for three minutes NNW to ENE, and Mar 6, 5:57 AM visible for five minutes NNW to ENE. The catch here again is that this is an early-morning event for this week. In a few days or weeks, the ISS will be positioned such that it will reflect sunlight during the evening hours instead of the morning hours. A great website to track these passes can be found here: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/view.cfm?country=United_States&region=Ohio&city=Logan#.YD2pN9xOlPY

It is possible to take pictures of the ISS even though it is flying at nearly 5 miles per second. This will require a long focal length telescope (1000mm) and camera attached to your telescope with a T-ring and T-adapter. Set the camera to a fast shutter speed (faster than 1/100s) and release the RA/Dec or Alt/Az locks so you can maneuver your telescope by hand. As the ISS passes, try to keep the space station centered in your viewfinder by controlling your telescope by hand. Simultaneously fire off lots of shots on your camera. Afterwards, sort through the images and see which ones came out best! Below is my attempt, you can hardly make out the white body and brown solar panels of the space station.

The iSS is more than just a “dot” when caught through a camera with a long telephoto lens . The trick is catching it in the first place! This is Jared’s attempt.

This week is going to be crammed with potentially clear nights and mostly moonless skies. The temperature will still be uncomfortably low, but will be very conducive for crisp and clear atmosphere so that views through binoculars/telescopes are very clear. Be on the lookout this week for the Pleiades/Mars matchup, the third quarter moon, and the early morning ISS passes and Jupiter/Mercury conjunction. Enjoy and explore the cosmos this week as we slowly lean into the spring nights.

Clear Skies!