Jared May: What's Up, March 22 - March 29, 2022

We have officially entered astronomical spring and have been promptly greeted with spring showers. Most of this week will be clouded over with the possible exception of Saturday and Sunday night where it may only be partially cloudy. The daytime temperatures this week swing between the 50s and 30s (with windchill) and the nighttime temperatures follow closely with temperatures ranging from the mid-40s to upper teens.

Sunset is right around 7:45 P.M. Be ready to stargaze around an hour later. In the event of some clear skies be on the lookout this week for the third-quarter moon, a moon-Antares meetup, a bright face-on spiral galaxy, and a four-way celestial conjunction. I will also include a brief update on the first sharp image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Friday, March 25th, marks March’s third-quarter moon. Since the moon is now in its later phases, it rises later in the night and has less and less of its surface illuminated as the week goes on. This is great news for stargazers and astrophotographers since its pesky bright glow will be minimized, revealing the faint stars, galaxies, and nebulae. If you do enjoy observing the moon but you are not a night owl, then just wait until early morning. Scan the western skies and spot the half-lit moon contrasting with the blue sky backdrop. The third quarter, much like the first quarter, is a great time to observe the moon for craters since the near perpendicular sun rays hitting these craters near the moon’s non-illuminated side causes stretched shadows leading to lots of contrast.

The third quarter moon rises after midnight and presents a different face than the first quarter moon. It can be seen setting in the west well after sunrise on clear mornings.

On Wednesday, March 23rd, between 2 AM (for the true night owls) and before sunrise, try spotting the near-third-quarter moon. It should be just a few degrees away from a noticeably red star. This is Antares, a red supergiant that is 12 times more massive than the sun and is part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. Antares is mostly a “summer star” since it hangs out in the southern skies during the late summer near the galactic core from our point of view.

Early in the morning on March 23, the third quarter moon slides by the red giant star, Antares.

In the spirit of spring (a.k.a. “galaxy season” for astrophotographers and telescopists), there is a bright galaxy that can be easily spotted which somewhat resembles looking down into a blooming rose. Messier object 101 (M101) is a face-on galaxy (meaning we can see the entire spiral structure) that sits 21 million light-years from the earth. This galaxy is home to around one trillion stars and shines at magnitude 7.9 making it an ideal target for a telescope. The best way to find M101 is to make an equilateral triangle with the last two stars in the Big Dipper’s handle. The “missing point” of this triangle is where M101 resides. Can you spot anything interesting about its shape compared to the Andromeda galaxy, for example?

How to find the galaxy M101, near the tail of the Big Dipper.

On Monday, March 28th, look in the eastern skies in the hour before sunrise to spot four familiar objects all just a few degrees apart from each other. Venus, Saturn, the moon, and Mars will all be clustered together in the sky. Grab a pair of binoculars and observe each of these objects independently because each of them has unique features that can only be revealed through some magnification.

The best planet show right now is in the morning sky.

The JWST is a new space telescope that will produce cutting-edge scientific results and will be looking at the earliest stars and galaxies in the universe. Before all of that, it needs to get itself aligned and get its mirrors calibrated (similar to amateur telescopes in some ways). Recently it went through a multi-step process to align all 18 of its mirrors and got them acting as a single large mirror. Initially, each of the 18 mirrors produced its own image of the target star (used for calibration) thus acting as 18 independent telescopes. After they shaped the mirrors to rid the images of optical aberration, the JWST team aligned these 18 images together – but there is a catch. Since each mirror is not phase-matched, they are still behaving as 18 independent telescopes, so they carefully adjusted the height of each mirror (relative to the mirror plane) and analyzed the calibration star’s image using Fourier analysis and other clever tricks to get all the mirrors to act as a single large mirror. Just this past week the JWST team released the image of this sharp and phase-matched image. (IMAGE: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/03/Webb_reaches_alignment_milestone_image_of_focused_star)

The first fully focused image from the JWST. This is a test image of the star 2MASS J17554042+6551277, a star of no particular interest except that it is the right color and brightness, and is in a sparsely populated part of the sky. This makes it suitable for calibration of JWST’s instruments.

Spring is a notoriously rainy time for Ohio (as are most seasons, honestly) but we may be lucky and catch a break this weekend with some clear or partially clear skies. You will likely need a winter coat but get outside on those nights and explore the spectacles of the entire universe from red supergiants to distant galaxies all from the comfort of your own backyard. Try spotting the third-quarter moon, Antares, a four-way conjunction, and M101.

Clear Skies! (Maybe?)