Sun rises at 6:32am.
Sun sets at 6:17pm.
Moon phase: third quarter, waning.
Moon rises at 10:26pm.
Moon sets at 9:55am.
Synchronicity
It’s not just a really great album by the police; it’s a state of alignment between cycles. For instance, this year is a leap year, which means an extra day must be added to the calendar so we can synchronize it to the seasons. Why do we need these extra days? Because the earth takes 365¼ days to orbit around the sun every year. It’s that ¼ day that creates the need for a leap year every four years.
If we didn’t do that, every four years, our calendar would be off by a full day. And in 120 years, the months of the calendar would have shifted over, giving us summers in July, August and September, and autumn would fall in October, November and December – and so on. Basically, we would be pretty much “out of synch.”
Leap days were first added to the Calendar in 46 B.C. by Julius Cesar, at the advice of Sosigenes, an astronomer from Alexandria, Egypt. Pretty smart ancient dude!
Early evening
Jupiter rises around 7:30 on Saturday night, more or less alone in a dark eastern sky until the moon rises about three hours later. The only notable star near Jupiter is the moderately bright star Denebola just to the left. This is the tail of Leo the lion, a constellation of the Zodiac. Regulus, the heart of the lion, sits high above Jupiter. Leo is recognized by the “backwards question mark” of his head and mane, and because the two brightest stars in his mane make a line that points to the big dipper.
As we leave February behind, recall the old saying that “March comes in with a lion.” Of course, it refers to roaring winds and harsh weather, but it also applies to the lion constellation visible in the March sky. The constellation Leo becomes visible in the Northern Hemisphere around the beginning of March and is easily identifiable through May. Leo lies between Cancer to the west and Virgo to the east.
Late night
This weekend, the moon will dance with Mars, after having spent some time nuzzling up with Jupiter earlier this week. Fickle moon! The planet Mars appears like a reddish star just under the moon’s lower edge. Between the moon and Mars is the smallish constellation of Libra, another Zodiac member. Libra’s four stars look like a kite or a diamond on its side, but they represent a scale used for weighing. It’s the only symbol of the Zodiac that is an inanimate object.
Early morning
Look for Saturn to climb out of the east around 2:00am. From then until 5:00am, the moon, Mars and Saturn will form a line down to the south-eastern horizon, with the bright star Antares in Scorpio, just to the right of Saturn. This is a very excellent time to view Saturn with a telescope; its rings are tilted nicely to the earth, making a beautiful image worth seeing.
Below Saturn, look for the “Teapot” shape of Sagittarius, and the eagle Aquila to its left. Venus will rise about 5:20am, heralding the sun’s reappearance soon, and the end of our star-gazing time for now.
If you are out later on in the week, each star rises about four minutes earlier each day than written here, and the moon rises 50 minutes later.
contributed by Lisa Davis-Burnett
