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This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report through March 5, 2020. Here’s what’s happening in the skies of southern California.
2020 is a leap year. Non-leap years are composed of 365 days, but on most years divisible by four, an additional day (called a leap day) is added to the end of February. Leap day this year is Saturday, February 29th. The purpose of the leap day is to keep the year synchronized with the Earth’s orbital period; Earth’s revolution around the sun actually takes 365 ¼ days, so after four years the calendar is a full day ahead of the Earth’s position in its orbit. The leap year gets the calendar back on track. Because this creates a slight overcorrection, the years that are evenly divisible by 100 skip the leap year, unless it is also evenly divisible by 400, in which case it is a leap year. Therefore, the year 1900 was not a leap year, but the year 2000 was a leap year.
Moving from the calendar to the sky, the brightest planet, Venus, continues to blaze in the western sky from sunset until Venus sets about three hours later. A telescope will show it approaching a half-lit phase, similar to a quarter moon.
The moon itself, in crescent phase, will appear next to Venus on Thursday, February 27th. On following nights its phase waxes, becoming first quarter on Monday, March 2nd, and then gibbous through the 5th, when it sets at 4:41 a.m.
The brightest planets beyond Earth’s orbit are available for observation in the southeast sky by 5:30 a.m. The brightest of these is Jupiter, flanked on its lower left by golden Saturn, and to its upper right by orange Mars.
These outer planets will be available for evening observation from late summer through autumn.
For the schedule of free public viewing of the Sun during the day and of the moon, planets, and other celestial objects at night through Griffith Observatory’s telescopes, please check our website. Note that Griffith Observatory will be closed to the public on Sunday, March 1st and Sunday March 22nd. The next free public star party on the grounds of Griffith Observatory, hosted by the Los Angeles Astronomical Society, the Sidewalk Astronomers, and the Planetary Society, will take place on Saturday, February 29th between 2:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Follow The Sky Report, All Space Considered, and Griffith Observatory on Twitter for updates on astronomy and space-related events.
From Griffith Observatory, I’m Anthony Cook, and I can be reached at griffithobserver@gmail.com.