THE SKY THIS MONTH

FOR THE CURRENT SKY FOR THIS MONTH (in french only), PLEASE VISIT THIS LINK (please change your links):

http://astrosurf.com//cdadfs/cmois/cm.htm

MARCH 2005 The sun The Moon The Planets Planet meetings Special Events Objects of the month Monthly challenges

PRECEDING MONTH

(Time is in EST or UT-5h)

The sun

Sun	Rise Set Top of the month 4h42 19h02 End of the month 4h09 19h36

The Moon

Moon	Date Time 01 01h24 08 03h45 16 03h56 23 15h18 Apogee on May 14th - Perigee on May 26th

The Planets

Mercury	Diam. Magn. Illumination Constellation Top of the month 7.4" +0.3 51% Pisces End of the month 5.1" -2.0 99% Taurus
Venus	Diam. Magn. Illumination Constellation Top of the month 9.8" -3.8 99% Aries End of the month 10.2" -3.7 96% Taurus
Mars	Diam. Magn. Illumination Constellation Top of the month 6.7" +0.6 87% Aquarius End of the month 7.9" +0.3 85% Aquarius
Jupiter	Diam. Magn. Illumination Constellation 42.8" -2.3 100% Virgo
Here are the current positions of the satellites of Jupiter: Thank you to Gary Nugent gnugent@indigo.ie http://indigo.ie/~gnugent/dnso and The Nine Planets website for this great applet!
Saturn	Diam. Magn. Illumination Constellation 17.3" +0.2 100% Gemini
Uranus	Uranus in Aquarius, mag +5.9
Neptune	Neptune in Capricorn, mag +7.9
Pluto	Pluto in Serpens, mag +13.8

Planet meetings Date /Objects 01 Moon & Neptune in the morning sky 02 Moon & Mars in the morning sky 03 Moon & Uranus in the morning sky 09 Moon & Venus dans le ciel du soir 12 Moon & Saturn before midnight 15 Mars & Uranus in the morning sky 19 Moon & Jupiter dans le ciel du soir 28 Moon & Neptune after midnight 30 Moon & Uranus in the morning sky 31 Moon & Mars in the morning sky Special Events METEOR SHOWERS: Full moon on March 25th 2005 Majors There are no major showers for March Minors MAX NAME LASTS ZHR NOTES 3/1 Rho Leonids 13 feb - 13 march     3/3 Pi Virginids 13 feb - 8 april 2-5 Max from 3rd to 9th 3/10 Leonids-Ursids 18 march - 7 april     3/18 Eta Virginids 24 feb - 27 march 1-2   3/19 Beta Leonids 14 feb - 25 april 3-4 Max from 19th to 21st 3/20 Theta Virginids 10 march - 21 april 1-3   3/29 Eta Draconids 22 march - 8 april   Max from 29th to 31st. Possibly from the Abell comet (1954 X). 3/31 Tau Draconids 13 march - 17 april     COMET NEWS : The Machholz C/2004 Q2 comet is near Polaris right now at magnitude 5.5. Visit the Comet Observation Home Page (COHP) website for more information source : the website Comets and Meteor Showers STARS OF THE MONTH: Double stars a d Mag AP Sep Characteristics d Gem 07h 20.2 +21°59 2.4 - 8.2 225 5.8 Wasat Slow binary 38 Gem 06h 54.7 +13°11 4.7 - 7.7 144 7.1   a Gem 07h 34.6 +31°53 1.9 - 2.9 61 3.8 Very beautiful double Variable stars a d Mmin Mmax Period (days) z Gem 07h 04.1 +20°34 3.62 4.18 10.15 Pulsating Variable d Cephei h Gem 06h 14.9 +22°30 3.2 3.9 232.9 Pulsating Variable h Gem Semiregular  s Gem 07h 43.4 +28°53 4.13 4.29 19.4 Eclipse binary OBSERVING ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES LIKE I.S.S., IRIDIUMS, ETC...: All you have to do is pick the passings for the region near you and by doing so, you will get all the data for the next 24hrs, 7 days, etc... Passings for MONTRÉAL Passings for VALLEYFIELD Passings for MIRABEL Objects of the month To find the constellations and these objects, check out the sky chart that Sky and Telescope makes available on their site. It is an easily printable monthly chart to help find your way around the sky Interactive sky chart from Sky and Telescope. The constellations for March, on the 15th at 10pm (EST), West to East: Cassiopeia: M52 (open cluster), M103 (open cluster) Perseus : H & X (open clusters), Algol (variable star), M76 (planetary nebula) Auriga : M36, M37, M38 (open clusters) Taurus : M45 (The Pleiades) (open cluster), M1 (supernova remnant) Orion : The great Orion nebula M42 Gemini : Constellation of the month Monoceros : NGC2261 Hubble's variable nebula Cancer : M44 (open cluster) Leo : M95, M96, M105 (trio of galaxies), M65 & M66 (spiral galaxies ) Canes Venatici : M51, M63, M94 (spiral galaxies) Coma Berenice and Virgo : numerous galaxies Hercules : M13 (globular cluster) A few target objects Object R.A. Dec. Diameter Mag Type Constellation NGC 2158 06h 07.6 +24°06 5.0' 8.6 OC Gemini M35 06h 09.0 +24°21 28' 5.1 OC Gemini NGC 2266 06h 43.4 +26°58 6.0' 9.5 OC Gemini NGC 2331 06h 07.6 +27°21 18.0' 8.5 OC Gemini NGC 2420 07h 38.5 +21°34 10.0' 8.3 OC Gemini NGC 2392 07h 29.1 +20°55 19.5" 9.9 (P) PN Gemini NGC 2304 06h 55.2 +17°59 5.0' 10.0 OC Gemini NGC 2355 07h 17.0 +13°45 9.0' 9.7 OC Gemini NGC 2395 07h 27.2 +13°37 12.0' 8.0 OC Gemini NGC 2194 06h 13.8 +12°48 10.0' 8.5 OC Orion M44 08h 40.4 +19°40 95.0' 3.1 OC Cancer NGC 2683 08h 52.8 +33°25 10.5' x 2.5' 10.6 (B) SGb Lynx (GC)=globular cluster, (OC)=open cluster , (PN)=planetary nebula, (SG)=spiral galaxy, (BSG)= Barred spiral galaxy, (EG)=elliptical galaxy , (IG)=irregular , (N)=nebula, (SN)=supernova remnant Monthly challenges Saturn is the bright object in Gemini. Visible almost all night. Very beautiful at the telescope. Notice the disk's shadow on the rings. Jupiter rises earlier every day. Beautiful object to observe. Venus disappears in the sun's light. Excellent appearance of Mercury between March 5th to 15th. Low on the western horizon slightly after sunset. Mercury will be slightly higher every day at the beginning of the month and there will be no other bright objects nearby. It should therefore be easily found. On March 11th, the crescent moon will be very close to the planet. Mars rises earlier every day and its magnitude increases. In the morning sky. Asteroids at opposition this month : Rachele on the 4th, Egena on the 9th, Pallas on the 23rd, Amphitrite on the 30th Meteor showers: the Virginids on the 24th Spring equinox on the 20th at 07:33 There are many objects in the constellations found on our website. Check out the maps, they will give some good ideas about stargazing.