This upcoming week has a few things in the sky that may be worth checking out. We are hoping for more snow melting so it is easier to setup observing equipment. The chart below highlights what is happening in the sky.
| Date | Event |
|---|
| March 28 | Regulus 1.0°S of Moon |
| March 28 | Venus 0.07°S of Uranus |
| March 29 | Falcon 9 Launch - 08:19 MDT |
| March 31 | Full Moon |
The Moon will be full on the last day of the month and will light up the sky throughout the entire night. However, just before the Moon is full it will be very close to the brightest star in Leo -- Regulus. Unfortunately, due to the weather this Winter/Spring I have not given much time to Leo. It is a wonderful constellation with many bright stars and worthwhile deep sky objects.
The big event occurring this week will be the conjunction of the second closest planet and second farthest planet from the Sun. Venus and Uranus will be within 4 arcminutes of each other in the sky. They may be able to be split with a set of binoculars but your best chance will be with a telescope. The below image shows the field of view of a pair of strong binoculars (4.4°).
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| Venus and Uranus, March 28, 2018, 20:30 MDT |
The planets will be so close to each other that they fit into the same field of view under great magnification (>200x) through a telescope. The image below shows a 1° field of view with some of my common eyepiece fields inside (23', 29').
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| Venus and Uranus with Telescope |
If you can catch this sight it will be remarkable. However, you must be careful since it is likely you will be setting up your telescope as the Sun is setting. Never point the telescope directly at the Sun unless it has a proper filter at the aperture. Some goto telescopes may even prevent you from looking too close to the Sun unless you disable the safety feature. I caught our closest neighbour last year when it was in the evening sky. The picture is shown below.
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| Venus |
I haven't had too much time observing Uranus as it danced throughout Pisces. A picture of my first glimpse is shown below. It seemed like a dull blue colour that did not twinkle in the sky.
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| Uranus |
Also, next week, for those who follow space launches, a Falcon 9 rocket will be taking off from Vandenberg Air Force Base this Thursday morning. The launch is currently scheduled for 08:19 MDT. See the following webpage for a live link of the launch.
https://spaceflightnow.com/
Stay tuned for some public events that will be happening in April. The biannual Fish Creek Star Night is coming up and you will not want to miss it! Once the snow clears from the community centre we will host another McKenzie Lake Star Night to see some of the great Spring constellations!
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