Dark Sky News

The private US spacecraft left Earth’s orbit on Feb. 8 before making a daylong journey to reach the moon.  Now, Blue Ghost is about halfway through its 16-day orbit of the moon and will attempt a descent to the lunar surface on March 2.

March 13 @8:17PM mag. -3.8 pass from WSW – NE right by Jupiter and into the Big Dipper

March 14 @ 7:28PM mag. -3.7 pass from SW – SE right through Orion’s Belt

The “Worm Moon” total lunar eclipse will be visible throughout all of North America, Mexico, Central America, and South America. This link shows you the path of the Moon and its visibility. 

On the day of an equinox, the geometric center of the Sun’s disk crosses the equator, and this point is above the horizon for 12 hours everywhere on the Earth. However, the Sun is not simply a geometric point. Sunrise is defined as the instant when the leading edge of the Sun’s disk becomes visible on the horizon, whereas sunset is the instant when the trailing edge of the disk disappears below the horizon. These are the moments of first and last direct sunlight. At these times, the center of the disk is below the horizon. Furthermore, atmospheric refraction causes the Sun’s disk to appear higher in the sky than it would if the Earth had no atmosphere. Therefore, in the morning the upper edge of the disk is visible for several minutes before the geometric edge of the disk reaches the horizon. Similarly, in the evening the upper edge of the disk disappears several minutes after the geometric disk has passed below the horizon. So, at our latitude, equal day and night actually occurs before the actual Equinox!

Perfect time to do DSO imaging, especially with the longer nights!