2018 Week 10: (March 4-March 10)

We have just received an enormous dump of snow with some estimates around 30cm.  2018 is turning out to be one of the snowiest years on record.  The sky is supposed to clear out for the week and we might be able to catch some sights in the sky.  I'm less optimistic about finding some ground to setup a telescope.  The chart below describes the events happening this week.

Date	Event
March 4	Neptune in conjunction with the Sun
March 5	Zodiacal light visible in West after twilight for the next two weeks
March 5	Mercury 1.4°N of Venus
March 7	Jupiter 4°S of Moon
March 9	Jupiter stationary
March 9	Last Quarter
March 9	Falcon 9 Launch (10:33pm-12:33am Launch Window)
March 10	Mars 4°S of Moon
March 10	Saturn 2°S of Moon

On Sunday Neptune will be in conjunction with the Sun and will start to appear in the morning sky.  It will likely be visible through a telescope in April for keen observers.  Once again the zodiacal light may be visible to those residing in dark sites away from urban light pollution.  For more information about the zodiacal light follow the link below.

http://simonjastronomy.blogspot.com/2017/02/what-is-zodiacal-light.html

Zodiacal Light

There will be several planets lining up with the Moon this week.  The first will be on March 7 when Jupiter will be in the same binocular field as our closest celestial neighbour.  If you look directly south at 5 in the morning on the 7th you will see this fine sight.

Exactly three days later at the same time look toward the southeast.  The Moon will be just North of Mars and Saturn.  Both planets will be at about the same magnitude (brightness) at 0.6.  The Moon will still be quite illuminated at just past last quarter.

Mercury and Venus require some work with the evening twilight.  The Mercury/Venus conjunction on the 5th will be very difficult.  The pair of inner planets will be about 13.5° away from the Sun.  After the Sun sets you can try to scan the horizon with a pair of decent binoculars to try to find them.  Obviously, do not use your binoculars on the Sun as you will likely go blind.  Wait until the Sun is completely behind the horizon before looking.  Later the following week you will have a great chance to see Mercury as it will be a full 18° from the Sun at its best evening visibility for us mid-northern latitude dwellers.

Jupiter will begin its retrograde motion early in the morning on the 9th.  This is nothing too exciting as it just means the planet will slowly transit East through Libra instead of West.  It will resume its prograde motion in the middle of July.  It's difficult to find good information about prograde and retrograde motion online as it seems only astrologers really care about it.

Also, if you are following space launches, another Falcon 9 will be blasting to the sky late on March 9.  Watch this live at the link below.

https://spaceflightnow.com/

As mentioned above the weather will perhaps be sunny throughout most of the week with temperatures hovering just below the freezing mark at their high.  Extending to the longer term it looks like we may have another week of snow.  Get your observing in when you can we might be in for a stumble across the equinox line this year.