LISTEN to this week’s Sky Report
This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the week ending Wednesday, March 28, 2012. Here is what’s happening in the skies of Southern California:
The brightest planet, Venus, and the second brightest planet, Jupiter, continue to put on a good show in the west after sunset. Jupiter is below Venus, and their apparent separation continues to grow, from nearly 8 degrees to almost 13 degrees between the 21st and 28th. They will be at their most attractive on Sunday the 25th, when the crescent moon appears to the upper right of Jupiter, and on Monday night, when the moon poses to the upper left of Venus. Jupiter is 475 million miles beyond Venus in space, and its appearance near Venus in the sky is only from our perspective. Jupiter will slip out of sight, nearly behind the sun in a few weeks, from our point of view. Venus is swinging out from behind the sun, and will soon be in the part of its orbit between earth and the sun. It will be in a rare alignment directly between earth and the sun on the afternoon June 5, producing a transit across the face of the sun, observable (with all due caution), from the western half of the United States and regions bordering the Pacific Ocean.
The moon is new on the morning of Thursday, March 22, and might be first glimpsed less than 10 degrees high in the west on the following Friday evening, from 7:30 to 8:00 p.m. It sets after the end of astronomical twilight starting on Saturday. By Tuesday the 27th, it will set at 10:35 p.m.
The orange planet, Mars, is opposite Venus and Jupiter in Leo the Lion and in the eastern sky in the early evening. Mars is highest in the sky at about 11:20 p.m. The small telescopic disk of the planet, 13 arcseconds wide, can be studied most of the night.
The ringed planet Saturn, in Virgo the Maiden, is to the left of Virgo’s brightest star, Spica. Saturn slightly outshines Spica, and appears golden compared to Spica’s blue-white hue. The pair are visible low in the southeast by 9:30 p.m. Saturn crosses the Meridian 20 minutes after Spica, at about 2:30 a.m. A telescope will reveal Saturn’s system of rings, tilted 14 degrees in our direction.
Free public viewing of the sun during the day and of the moon, planets, and other celestial objects at night, is available in clear weather five days a week (Wednesday-Sunday) through Griffith Observatory’s telescopes before 9:30 p.m. Check our website for our schedule. The next public star party of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society and the Sidewalk Astronomers is scheduled for Saturday, March 31.
The Sky Report is updated every Wednesday. It can be read and heard on our website by following the Sky Information links. From Griffith Observatory, I’m Anthony Cook, and I can be reached at griffithobserver@gmail.com.