The Sky over Berlin

March 2010

Index: Links to Astronomy...

Overview Events
The Starry Sky in March
Sunrise and Sunset
The Phases of the Moon
The Planets
Saturn at Opposition

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Overview

The Starry Sky in March

The Starry Sky in StarryNight

Sunrise and Sunset

...with astronomical dusk/dawn for 52°31'30" North and 13°18'45" East at 3m above sealevel (StarryNight 2.0)

Dawn 1.: 04:59     11.: 04:36     21.: 04:10     31.: 03:42 (MET)

Rise 1.: 06:55     11.: 06:32     21.: 06:09     31.: 05:45 (MET)

Set 1.: 17:43     11.: 18:02     21.: 18:19     31.: 18:37 (MET)

Night 1.: 19:39     11.: 19:58     21.: 20:19     31.: 20:41 (MET)

The Phases of the Moon

7.: 16:42

15.: 22:01

23.: 12:00

30.: 3:25 (MET)

The Planets

invisible at daylight/evening sky in Aquarius/Pisces

slowly visible at the evening sky in Aquarius/Pisces/Aries

visible at the nightly sky in Cancer

invisible at the daylight sky in Aquarius

visible at the nightly sky in Virgo

invisible at the daylight sky in Pisces

invisible at the morning sky in Capricornus

visible at the morning sky in Sagittarius

Illustrations: StarryNight 2.0 & -- jd --

Events

11.3.2010 10h MET: Mars standing still, followed by prograde motion
13.3.2010 12h MET: 532 Herculina at opposition to the Sun in Coma Berenice with 8^m.8
14.3.2010 14h MET: Mercury at superior conjunction with the Sun
17.3.2010 8h MET: Uranus at conjunction with the Sun
20.3.2010 18:32h MET: Sun at Spring point, day-night-equilibrium
22.3.2010 2h MET: Saturn at opposition to the Sun (see below)
25.3.2010: 2 Pallas standing still, followed by retrograde motion
28.3.2010 2h MET = 3h MEST: Start of Daylight Savings Time
29.3.2010 12h MET: Mercury at perihelion (close to the Sun, distance Mercury-Sun 0.307 a.u.)
31.3.2010 0h MET: Mars at aphelion (far from the Sun, distance Mars-Sun 1.666 a.u.)
31.3.2010: Hydraïds maximum (visible March 15 until April 5, weak, slow)*

11.3.2010: 45th anniversary of the launch of Pioneer 5 (NASA)
13.3.2010: 155th birthday of Percival Lowell
14.3.2010: 175th birthday of Giovanni Schiaparelli
16.3.2010: 260th birthday of Caroline Herschel; 35th anniversary of the third Mercury flyby of Mariner 10 (NASA)
18.3.2010: 45th anniversary of the first space walk by Alexei Leonov (UdSSR)
21.3.2010: 45th anniversary of the launch of Ranger 9 to the Moon (NASA)
23.3.2010: 170th anniversary of the first photo taken of the Moon; 45th anniversary of the start of Gemini 3 with Grissom & Young (3 Earth orbits, NASA)
25.3.2010: 355th anniversary of the discovery of Titan by Christiaan Huygens
27.3.2010: 165th birthday of Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen

Source of the celestial events:: Hans-Ulrich Keller (ed.), Kosmos-Himmelsjahr 2010, Frankh-Kosmos 2009

s.u.:

Saturn and its Moons, NASA Collage

Saturn at Opposition

Saturn and its Moons

At the 10th of August 2009 the Sun gleamed directly onto the ring plane of Saturn so that neither the Northern nor the Souther side of the largest ring system of the Solar system was distinctively shone. This event was nearly not visible from Earth because Saturn seemed to be next to the Sun. But since the 1st of July 2004 an artificial moon circles around Saturn, the NASA probe Cassini, which could take a picture of this event within its "Cassini Equinox Mission":

photo: NASA

Saturn day-night-equilibrium, August 10, 2009 (photo: NASA)

This month Saturn reaches its opposition position to the Sun, this means that Sun and Saturn are placed on a virtual line which goes throuth the Earth, where the Sun is on one side and Saturn on the other. The Sun now shines on the Northern side of the ring plane. As seen from Earth the ring opening is only 3.2 degrees:

In StarryNight:

Saturn at Opposition, March 22, 2010

The exact date of the opposition position is March 22, 2010 at 2 a.m. The ringed planet will have a brightness of 0^m.5 at the Earthen sky and a virtual diameter of 19.5 arc seconds. Even in a small telescope the oblateness of the planetary disc will be visible, because the polar diameter of Saturn will be only 17.4 arc seconds. Also in a small telescope the largest moon of Saturn will be visible: Titan with its 5150 kilometer in diameter:

photo: NASA

The rings of Saturn with Titan (and Epimetheus, photo: NASA)

As the only moon of the Solar system Titan has a dense atmosphere and appears as a reddish shimmering dot as seen from Earth. Titan circles Saturn in a mean distance of 1.22 million kilometer within 15.945 days. Saturn has 61 moons in total, of which besides of Titan only Rhea, Dione, Tethys and under special circumstances Japetus can be seen from Earth with "normal" instruments. Only Jupiter has more moons than Saturn, that are 63.

photo: NASA

Rhea (photo: NASA)

With 1528 kilometer in diameter Rhea is the second largest moon of Saturn and will reach a brightness of about 9^m.6 as seen from Earth. It circles Saturn in a mean distance of ca. 527000 kilometer within 4.518 days.

photo: NASA

Dione (photo: NASA)

With 1118 kilometer in diameter Dione is the fourth largest moon of Saturn and will reach a brightness of about 10^m.3. It circles around Saturn in a mean distance of ca. 377500 kilometer within 2.737 days.

photo: NASA

Tethys (photo: NASA)

Tethys has a mean diameter of 1060 kilometer and with this its the fifth largest moon of the ringed planet. The maximum brightness of Tethys as seen from Earth is about 10^m.1. Tethys circles around Saturn in a mean distance of ca. 294700 kilometer within 1.888 days.

photo: NASA

Japetus (photo: NASA)

Japetus has a mean diameter of 1436 kilometer and with this its the third largest moon of the ringed planet. Its maximum brightness is about 10^m.4, but its brightness varies much regarding which of its unequal bright sides is pointing to Earth. Japetus circles Saturn in a somewhat highly inclined orbit with a mean distance of 3.56 million kilometer within 79.331 days.

photo: NASA

Saturn from above (photo: NASA)

The artificial Saturn moon Cassini will circle at least until the mid of this year around the ringed planet to send more pictures of Saturn, its rings and its moons to Earth.

As seen from Earth Saturn is located in the constellation of Virgo. March 29 the following situation can be seen at the Eastsoutheastern sky:

In StarryNight:

Saturn and Moon (magnified) at March 29, 2010

Shortly after moonrise in the evening the two celestial bodies will have a distance of 9.4 degrees to each other. Also the following encounters between Saturn and Moon won't be that special. - The source of the Saturn pictures and the pictures of the Saturnian moons is the archive of the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). The moons of Saturn are also a topic of the Kosmos-Himmelsjahr in April 2010.

created: 2009-10-24 from German version
modified: 2009-10-25 translated

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Overview		Events
	The Starry Sky in March Sunrise and Sunset The Phases of the Moon The Planets		Saturn at Opposition

		1.: 04:59 11.: 04:36 21.: 04:10 31.: 03:42 (MET)
		1.: 06:55 11.: 06:32 21.: 06:09 31.: 05:45 (MET)
		1.: 17:43 11.: 18:02 21.: 18:19 31.: 18:37 (MET)
		1.: 19:39 11.: 19:58 21.: 20:19 31.: 20:41 (MET)

		invisible at daylight/evening sky in Aquarius/Pisces
		slowly visible at the evening sky in Aquarius/Pisces/Aries
		visible at the nightly sky in Cancer
		invisible at the daylight sky in Aquarius
		visible at the nightly sky in Virgo
		invisible at the daylight sky in Pisces
		invisible at the morning sky in Capricornus
		visible at the morning sky in Sagittarius