March Equinox 2012
It’s equinox time again, and this year’s March equinox took place today at precisely 5:14 a.m. GMT, or Universal Time (13:14 in Manila). The March equinox was also known as the “spring equinox” in the northern hemisphere and “autumnal (fall) equinox” in the southern hemisphere as this event marks the change of seasons — the beginning of spring in the northern part of the globe and autumn in the south.
During equinox, night and day are nearly exactly the same length – 12 hours – all over the world. This is the reason it’s called an “equinox”, derived from Latin, meaning “equal night”.
However, even if this is widely accepted, it isn’t entirely true. In reality equinoxes don’t have exactly 12 hours of daylight. A good website for looking at sunrise and sunset times in Manila can be found here. The best one for checking the bearing (direction) of sunrise or sunset anywhere in the world is the US Naval Observatory.
A more appropriate way to define equinox is given by astronomers. According to its astronomical definition, an equinox is the moment when the sun arrives at one of two intersection points of the ecliptic, the sun’s path across the sky, and the celestial equator, earth’s equator projected onto the sky.
Image credit: Chris de Villiers (www.skywatch.co.za)
My plans today were to head on the top of a high place and catch the sun setting due west. Sadly, the weather was not very good and the visibility was terrible.
Had I been able to see the sun it would have set due west.
Everyone always says that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, but if we were really aware of our surroundings and more attuned to the sky we would realize that this is not true. In fact this is only true for two days out of the entire year and those are during equinoxes.
By studying the sun’s position in the sky over the course of a year from the same location, one can notice that its rising and setting positions are changing by more at a particular time of year than at any other time.
The amount of change in the location of the rising and setting of the sun throughout the year depends upon where your viewpoint is. However, irrespective of where you are on the globe, the Sun will always rise exactly east and set exactly west during equinoxes (on March 20/21 and September 20/21)
On the other hand, near the solstices the sunrise position slows its change to close to a ‘standstill’ (the name ‘solstice’ being derived from the Latin for ‘sun standing still’).
Path of the Sun in the sky at different times of the year. Image copyright: Addison-Wesley
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Seasons Without Borders: Equinox March 2012
Wherever you are on 20 March, 2012, celebrate your season in the cycle of life with Astronomers Without Borders. Enjoy your own unique Equinox this year—and why not tell others about the experience? Being mindfully aware of your place on this moving Earth may bring out the storyteller and poet in you. AWB invites you to share your event reports and poems at the AWB Members’ Blog and AWB Astropoetry Blog. Send your poems to: astropoetry@astronomerswithoutborders.org.
AWB’s Venus-Jupiter Conjunction Image Collection
Enjoy the beautiful views of the Venus-Jupiter conjunction as seen from various parts of the globe through Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) image collection.
Last March 13-15, a lot of amateur astronomers participated in AWB’s event, “Beauty Without Borders: Conjunction of Glory” which highlighted the closest encounter of Jupiter and Venus — the two brightest planets in the night sky.
Images were submitted to AWB by uploading the them in Twitter and using the hashtag #VenusJupiter. Two of my images got included in this collection as well. Thank you, AWB!
Under the motto “One People, One Sky”, AWB brings people together from around the world through our common interest in astronomy .
True enough, “the boundaries we place between us vanish when we look skyward.” 🙂
Closest Encounter of Venus and Jupiter in 2012
If you’ve been looking west after sunset recently you can’t have failed to see Venus blazing there so bright, outshining everything else in the sky. To Venus’ upper left is another bright” star”, which is actually another planet, Jupiter.
Jupiter and Venus - 8 degrees apart. Image captured 5 March 2012 at 6:45 pm.
These two bright planets visible in the night sky have been putting on quite a show this past month as they have been slowly getting closer together in the western sky just after sunset.
Next week, Venus and Jupiter will be MUCH closer than they are now. 🙂
On March 15, an impressive celestial show at twilight will surprise sky observers as these two planets reach what astronomers call conjunction – the closest they can appear in the sky together.
Getting closer - 5 degrees apart. Image taken 9 March 2012 at 6:24 pm.
The pair of planets will appear to be only 3 degrees apart in the western sky. That is equal to the width of your three middle fingers at arms’ length. Their proximity in the sky is an illusion, of course, as Venus is 180 million km away from Earth and Jupiter is more than 600 million km farther away.
After their mid March close encounter, the two planets will quickly go pass each other – Jupiter dropping down towards the horizon, getting closer to the Sun, while Venus moves higher up in the sky, moving away from the Sun, and brightening as it does so.
The next Venus-Jupiter conjunction after this one falls on May 28, 2013.
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Beauty Without Borders: Conjunction of Glory
The Jupiter-Venus conjunction on March 15 will be quite a spectacle, as both planets are very bright. This will be a fantastic visual and photographic opportunity, as it’s not often that you get the brightest planets in our Solar System so close together.
In line with this, Astronomers Without Borders (AWB), in collaboration with Amateur Astronomers Association of Kurdistan & Opportunity Astronomical Observatory (Iraq), presents “Beauty without Borders: Conjunction of Glory”.
All the amateur/professional groups out there are invited to participate and enjoy the beautiful views.
http://www.facebook.com/events/307475112650751/
Join the conversation on Twitter @awb_org using #VenusJupiter with other groups around the world. Post your images on our Flickr or Facebook page.
Tour the Planets: Jupter and Venus Conjunction Live
http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/projects/observing-activities/beauty-without-borders/1049.html
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Here is a video from Newsy.com to help you know more about this event: http://www.newsy.com/videos/venus-and-jupiter-set-for-cosmic-meetup/
AWB March 2012 Events
Global Astronomy Month 2012 (www.gam-awb.org) is merely a month away. Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) has organized three exciting events in March to do the warm-ups!
Spread the word and join in.
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“Hello Red Planet”
3-5 March 2012
Mars will come into Opposition on March 3, 2012 in the constellation Leo with its face fully illuminated by the Sun and two days later, on March 5, 2012, the planet will have its closest approach to Earth during this apparition: 100.78 million km (0.6737 AU)—the best time to say “Hello” to the Red Planet.
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“Conjunction of Glory”
13 – 15 March 2012
Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets in the sky, will be within 3 degrees of each other in the evening sky of 15 March 2012 at 10:37:46 UTC. This will be quite a spectacle, as both planets are very bright—and this will be a fantastic visual and photographic opportunity, as it’s not often that you get the brightest planets in our Solar System so close together.
The next Venus-Jupiter conjunction after this one falls on May 28, 2013.
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“March Equinox 2012”
20 March 2012
The March equinox occurs at 05:14 UTC, Tuesday 20 March. The Sun will shine directly down on the Earth’s equator and there will be nearly equal amounts of day and night throughout the world. This is also the first day of spring (Vernal Equinox) in the northern hemisphere and the first day of fall (Autumnal Equinox) in the southern hemisphere.
Wherever you are on 20 March, 2012, celebrate your season in the cycle of life with Astronomers Without Borders. Enjoy your own unique Equinox this year—and why not tell others about the experience?
To the stars! 🙂
More about GAM 2012:
Mars at Opposition – March 2012
Mars will reach opposition (when it is directly opposite the Sun in the sky and brightest for this apparition) on the night of March 3rd 2012, positioned 5º.4 SSW of the star Coxa ( Leo or Theta Leonis, mag. +3.9) and 4º.5 West of Leonis. Mars is now brighter and closer than it’s been for two years – and brighter and closer than it will be again until 2014.
However, Mars’ perigee (closest point to the Earth) will take place two days later – on March 5th – when it is 0.6737 AU (100.7 million kms or 62.6 million miles) from the Earth. This is due to the eccentricity of the orbit of Mars.
The motion of an outer planet, as seen from a "fixed" Earth. | image from cseligman.com
It’ll be hard to miss Mars because it’s the fourth-brightest star-like object to light up the night at this time, after the planets Venus and Jupiter, and the star Sirius.
You can find Mars in the eastern sky at nightfall and early evening, in front of the constellation Leo the Lion. Leo’s brightest star, Regulus, is to the upper right of Mars when they are in the east in the evening hours.
Looking for Mars | image: Stellarium
On opposition day this 2012, Mars will shine at magnitude -1.2 and will have an apparent disk diameter of 13″.9. This is not as bright nor as large (when seen through a telescope) as it was at its previous opposition in January 2010, when the planet reached magnitude -1.3 and had an apparent diameter of 14″.1.
Trivia: At opposition, the Earth passes in between the sun and Mars, so that the sun, Earth and Mars lie along a line in space. During this event a superior planet like Mars rises around sunset, is visible throughout the night and sets around sunrise. Its highest point in the sky is reached when it crosses the observer’s meridian at local midnight (due South at midnight in the Northern hemisphere and due North at midnight in the Southern hemisphere).
Say “Hello” to the Red Planet
Through the Beauty without Borders program, Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) will bring together groups around the world to enjoy the event through observing, webcasts, activities, photography and poetry.
Mars will come into Opposition on March 3, 2012 in the constellation Leo with its face fully illuminated by the Sun and two days later, on March 5, 2012, the planet will have its closest approach to Earth during this apparition: 100.78 million km (0.6737 AU)—the best time to say “Hello” to the Red Planet.
For more info visit http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/projects/observing-activities/beauty-without-borders/1045.html
Join this event and share it with your friends!
Clear skies!
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Useful links:
“International Observe the Moon Night!” — 09.18.2010
SEEING THE MOON… in a whole new light
2009 was a very big year for lunar exploration. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) began orbiting the Moon, returning more amazing images and more digital data in its first year than any other planetary mission in history. Meanwhile, Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) crashed into the Moon’s south polar region in an unprecedented search for water below the Moon’s surface.
International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN) – September 18, 2010 – follows NASA’s first celebration of these historic missions as part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 in public events called “We’re at the Moon!” (for LRO) and “National Observe the Moon Night” in the USA (for LCROSS). Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) is partnering with NASA missions and centers and others to bring the excitement of observing and learning about Earth’s closest neighbor in space to the public — putting the “International” into InOMN.
Share the excitement of lunar exploration with the public by hosting your own InOMN event:
- Hold a public star party and give others a close-up look at our closest celestial neighbor
- Hold a public lecture or give a public presentation
- Contact a school near you and give a special presentation to classes
- Hold an online events like a Tweetup
Let’s fly to the moon! 😀
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Visit http://observethemoonnight.org/ to know more.
Journey to the Stars 