SKYLIGHTS

Skylights featured on Astronomy Picture of the Day

Skylights featured nine times on Earth Science Picture of the Day: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 -- Full List Restored!

Photo of the Week.. Double rainbow.

Astronomy news for the two weeks starting Friday, March 10, 2017.

Please Note

Skylights has been produced in various forms for 31 years, since 1985, and even before that as an annual bulletin. It's now time to simplify Skylights and bring part of it to a close. We will continue to list lunar phases, planetary passages, and other significant events for the coming two weeks on this website, but by bullet, not by prose text. Because there will no longer be any script, the telephone and emailing services have been dropped. The Star of the Week will continue as before, as will the Photo of the Week. Thanks all for your support.
Jim Kaler

The next Skylights will appear Friday, March 24. All times below are Daylight Savings Times.

The Moon
- Monday, the 13th to Sunday the 19th, waning gibbous
- Monday the 20th, third quarter.
- Rest of week, waning crescent.
- Moon falls below rising Regulus, Friday, March 10, then passes south of Leo.
- Moon is northeast of Jupiter, Tuesday the 4th; northwest of the planet the following night.
- Moon at apogee, farthest from Earth, 1.7 percent more than average, Sunday the 18th
The Planets
- Venus is brilliant low in southwest in twilight, but nearly gone by the end of the period as it approaches inferior conjunction with the Sun.
- Mars sets shortly after 10 PM Daylight Time.
- Dominating the sky, Jupiter rises in Virgo just after the end of twilight. Jupiter then transits the meridian a couple hours past midnight, about the time Saturn rises in Sagittarius. Saturn is almost as far south as it can get, 22 degrees south of celestial equator.
The Earth
- Daylight Savings Time begins Sunday, March 12.
- Moving northward, the Sun crosses the celestial equator at the Vernal Equinox in Pisces at 5:29 CDT and spring begins in the northern hemisphere. The Sun then rises due east and sets due west, and barring minor effects, the lengths of day and night are equal.
The Sky
- The winter constellations with Orion, Canis Major and Minor, and the like, disappear into the west. With the Milky Way more or less lying on the horizon, we get to look through its haze of dust to the outside and to the amazing number of external galaxies, topped by the great Virgo Cluster. Virgo herself, known for the bright bluish first magnitude star Spica, is currently well-marked by Jupiter, which lies to the north of it. To the north find the orange-colored giant star Arcturus, the brightest star of the northern celestial hemisphere.

Primary source: The Astronomical Almanac.

Copyright © James B. Kaler, all rights reserved. The written contents and (unless otherwise specified) the photograph are the property of the author and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the author's consent except in fair use for educational purposes.