Dark Sky Maine Newsletter #2
In this time of social distancing and fears of COVID-19, we all search for things to bring comfort and normalcy to our lives. Friends and loved ones seem far away even when they’re close by, some may be sick, quarantined, or simply housebound. Fortunately, between Face Book, texting, emails, Zoom, and Skype, we can at least see and talk with each other. It’s not the same, but it helps.
If that’s not enough to satisfy your cravings of normalcy, I urge you to look out your window, step into your backyard and you’ll find many normal things happening. Spring has sprung! The Earth is still going around the Sun. The days are now longer than the nights. Crocuses are blooming, creating bursts of color amidst the drab litter of dead leaves and grass. Watch for the robins scurrying about looking for grubs.
Goldfinches at the feeder
Raising our sights higher we might find the goldfinches that are regaining their primary yellow colors of spring and summer. Listen as the songs of the cardinals fill the air, and perhaps the croaking notes of the red-wing blackbirds will make you smile. Some folks are already hearing the peepers. Spring is clearly in the air and life abounds.
Orion The Hunter
Go out at night and look higher still and let the stars bring you comfort as they wheel overhead. Winter constellations such as Orion and his two faithful dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor, are dipping lower each night in the west, while Leo the Lion rises over the eastern horizon. Ursa Major, the great bear, awakens from his low slumbering wintertime position to climb higher into the sky. These stellar friends are still going through their yearly rituals, and that shows that not all is amok in the universe.
Living in Maine, we can easily see these things happening around us. While the stars are better seen from the darkness of the countryside, many can be seen even from your backyard in town and city. We are fortunate in Maine to have such dark skies. Let them entertain you, let them inspire you, let them give you comfort. Looking at the night sky always brings a broader sense of our place in the cosmos.
We have many sky happenings that can easily be viewed from your backyard this spring. Get up at 5:30 am, look to the east and see Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter. Saturn is now just above the rusty red Mars, while Jupiter is just a bit to right of the other two, far outshining them both. Mars is the fastest mover of the three, see how it has moved from Jupiter to just beneath Saturn on its eastward trek.
Planets in the pre-dawn sky on March 18, 2020
In the evening sky we’ve been graced by the brilliance of Venus in our western skies after sunset. It’s difficult to miss, it appears as the brightest “star” in the sky. During early April watch it as it passes closely to the star cluster known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. While visible to the unaided eye, it’s a stunning sight with binoculars.
Venus below the Pleiades Comet ATLAS on March 27, 2020
Finally, if you’re one of us who like to take our observations a bit deeper, take out an 8” or larger telescope and search the northern skies for the faint hazy wisps of Comet ATLAS. It’s currently a challenge for the deep sky observer, but we all have a bit of time on our hands these days, so why not give it a try. If you don’t have a telescope, wait until late April or perhaps May when—if all goes well—Comet ATLAS might brighten to the level that you’ll see it with the unaided eye! That’s something special to look forward to.
