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Dark Sky Maine’s Upcoming Spring Events

Vernal Equinox Virtual Star Party—March 21, 2022
FREE with registration!

Join us on March 21, the first full day of spring, for a special virtual star party on Zoom.

The Spring Star Party will also feature:

• Special guest, author Jamie Hogan, who will read her children’s book Skywatcher. Be sure to bring your children along!

• A tour of the stars and constellations of spring with DSM’s Vice President, John Meader of Northern Stars Planetarium.

• A look at the nocturnal creatures of spring with DSM’s Maine Master Naturalist, Serena Sanborn.

• How to observe the upcoming lunar eclipse on May 15-16 with DSM’s Treasurer, Shawn Laatsch, Director of the Versant Power Astronomy Center at the University of Maine.

• A trip to the pyramids of Egypt with DSM’s President, Nancy Hathaway.

It’s sure to be a fun hour+ on Zoom, packed with lots of great information.

To register simply email darkskymaine@gmail.com and say you’d like to register for the Spring Star Party. You’ll receive a Zoom link a day or two before the event.

Online Class: Exploring the Spring Skies

Mar. 23, 30, Apr. 6,13, 2022, 7-8pm EDT.

Instructor: John Meader, Dark Sky Maine Vice President and Director of Northern Stars Planetarium.

Hosted by: Nancy Hathaway, President of Dark Sky Maine.

Fee: $60/person.

Learn the spring sky with a weekly virtual lesson presented on Zoom by John Meader of Northern Stars Planetarium for four weeks in March and early April. Each lesson will be roughly one hour long.

You will learn the constellations of spring, the names of significant stars, as well as how to find the visible planets. Everyone will gain access to Stellarium and learn how to use this amazing free software for study and future reference.

To register donate $60 to Dark Sky Maine and email us at darkskymaine@gmail.com and let us know that you’re registering for the Exploring the Spring Skies Class. We’ll be in touch a couple of days before the first class with the syllabus and more information.

Late Winter Night Sky Highlights

by Richard Luecke

As February gives way to March, the hours of daylight lengthen. This gradual transformation will continue day by day through the Spring Equinox (March 20) when the hours of daylight and darkness will be equal. Daylight hours will continually lengthen until the Summer Solstice (June 21), after which darkness will increase on the gradual slide toward winter.

The chart shown below, with the clock hours on the vertical axis, illustrates the light/dark transition for Bar Harbor between January 1 and late August, with the selector bar set for March 1. The blurry demarcation between light and dark in the chart represents civil, nautical and astronomical twilight for both morning and evening. Why the abrupt “blip” in early March? That marks the change to daylight saving time.

For us astrogeeks, evening astronomical twilight is the point at which serious stargazing can begin. (Find this chart for your town at https://www.timeanddate.com.)

Morning Planets

You’re in for a treat on 26 February if you can drag yourself out of bed in the pre-dawn darkness. Venus, Mars, and the crescent moon will be suspended just above the SE horizon.

Venus will be eye-poppingly bright, but you may need binoculars to pick out the dimmer Red Planet. A rich section of the Milky Way will form the background, and your binos will likely encounter some its fascinating star clusters and nebulae if you scan through the area above the crescent moon toward the lower right corner of this SkySafari image.

Featured Constellation: Cancer

What . . . you’re not an early bird? Then go outside in mid-evening and look for Cancer, the Crab. Facing south at around 8:30 you will find it fairly high up. Cancer lacks the bright stars of its winter neighbors, but the two bright stars of Gemini--Castor and Pollux--will point you to it (see chart below). The jewel of this small constellation is the Beehive Cluster, or M44. Its position is marked in blue in the chart. It is visible to the naked eye in a dark sky as a dim, fuzzy patch. Hipparchus, in fact, identified it as the “Little Cloud” in his 130 BC celestial catalog. Binoculars reveal up to 70 stars, making it one of the very best targets for bino stargazers. A telescope of modest aperture will reveal hundreds more. Lower your aim a bit and your binos will land on M67 (marked in red in the chart), another standout open cluster.

SkySafari image for March 20, 8:30 p.m. EDT

Cancer and its bright winter companions are inching westward night by night and will eventually fade into the golden light of the setting sun. Enjoy them while you can. There’s plenty to look forward to, however. April and May will bring Leo and Virgo front and center. To owners of large scopes, that means galaxy season. So, stay tuned.

Learn more at: DarkSkyMaine.com

Help keep Maine’s skies the darkest in the eastern United States. Donate to Dark Sky Maine and help us keep our skies dark and full of stars.

Dark Sky Maine, a 501c3 nonprofit, promotes an appreciation of the night sky through education and by supporting measures that use appropriate lighting to provide security on the ground, promote the health of humans and nocturnal wildlife, while maintaining dark skies overhead.

Thank you for your support!