Saturday: Don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour tonight for the annual ritual called daylight savings. Daylight savings originated in the United States during World War I to save energy for the war effort. But a recent study by two economists shows that switching to daylight savings time may actually lead to higher utility bills. When the economists compared the previous few years of energy bills in the section of Indiana that just started observing daylight savings, they discovered that switching to daylight savings cost Indiana utility customers $8.6 million in electricity. In an even more important consequence of daylight savings, Stanley Coren of the University of British Columbia discovered a 7% jump in traffic accidents on the Monday after we "spring ahead". Blame it on the lost hour of sleep. And, sky watchers will lose even more sleep because the sky stays light for an additional hour.
Sunday: Avast ye matey. Swab the poop deck. Pirates love
astronomy. In fact, the term “poop” in poop deck comes from the French word for
stern (poupe) which comes from the Latin word Puppis. Puppis is a constellation
that represents the raised stern deck of Argo Navis, the ship used by Jason and
the Argonauts in Greek mythology. Argo Nevis was an ancient constellation that
is now split into the constellations Puppis, Vela and Carina. The top of Puppis
is two fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south and about a fist
and a half to the left of the bright star Sirius at 9:45 p.m. Zeta Puppis, the
hottest, and thus the bluest, naked eye star in the sky at 40,000 degrees
Celsius, is about a half a fist above due south at this time.
Monday: “Oooo, they’re little runaways. Orion’s stars moved
fast. Tried to make a getaway. Ooo-oo, they’re little runaways,” sang Bon Jovi
in his astronomical hit “Runaway. At least that’s what I hear when I
listen to the song. After all, it fits the recently calculated trajectory of AE
Aurigae, Mu Columbae, and 53 Arietis. Extrapolating the actual motion of these
three stars back in time, they were all in the location of the star-forming
region called the Orion Nebula a few million years ago. What kicked these stars
out? Not paying rent? Excessive partying? No, it was simply gravitational
interactions with near-by stars. Find out more about the eviction at http://goo.gl/UeLwKQ. The Orion Nebula is
visible with the naked eye from a very dark site, about three fists above the
southwestern horizon at 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday: Antares is a fist and a half above due south at
6:00 am. It is about a half a fist to the right of the moon.
Wednesday: Arcturus is two fists above the eastern horizon
at 10:30 p.m.
Thursday: Jupiter is a little less than a fist above due
west at 8:00 pm. Venus is about a fist and a half to the upper left of Jupiter.
Friday: Ask someone which day in March has the same duration
day and night. Go ahead, ask someone. Why are you still reading this? I can
wait. If that person said the first day of spring, they are wrong. Today, a few
days before the first day of spring, is the date in which day and night are
closest in duration in central Washington. There are two main reasons for this.
First, the atmosphere acts like a lens, bending light from the Sun above the
horizon when the Sun is actually below the horizon. This makes the Sun appear
to rise before it actually rises and appear to set after it actually sets.
Second, spring starts when the center of the Sun passes through the point
called the vernal equinox. But, the Sun is not a point. The upper edge of the
Sun rises about a minute before the center of the Sun and the lower edge sets a
minute after the center of the Sun. Thus, even if we didn’t have an atmosphere
that bends the sunlight, daytime on the first day of spring would still be
longer than 12 hours.
The positional information in this column about stars and
planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information
about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
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