Weekend Stars

It's a rare meeting of space ships and planets according to Nasa. Check it out and look up this weekend.

Now after the morning News it's ...... AN EQUINOX

On Sunday March 20th is the night when daylight and night are equal, it's an Equinox! The sun is at the equator and it is heading our way! There is a bonus with the Equinox, so get your binoculars out and get ready to look up again.  As twilight begins the moon appears with in a large crescent form, but wait until twilight fades to night and that is when you want to start looking up.

                                                           Nasa Image, thanks Nasa!
                                    

Orion it's stars & The Backyard Birds!

Globe at Night is happening now, it started March 3rd and continues until March 16. You don't have to do it every night, so don't get tied up in knots about it. Me the nut-bar, I am doing it every night. You can observe the stars at night from your location and record what you see or don't see. This is all in aid of recording light pollution in our skies. Within an hour of posting your observations you can view your record on the map. It gets you outside and looking up;-)
I just checked my posts for The Great Backyard Bird Count and what you submit is shown by lists (birders luv lists) and also a map. I looked at the lists and my records were much the same as everyone else's, except the morning I had over 100 gold finches at my feeders all at once, talk about a party. The cat flew in the door! It was interesting and wonderful see on the map how many people in Ontario that actually did participate in this count. Check it out even if you did not participate, it's fun and interesting, in a birders sort of way........

'The Belt of Venus' & 'Globe At Night'

The wonderful phenomenon named The Belt of Venus occurs at the end of the day, when the earth casts it's shadow on the horizon.
Read about it in Sky & Telescope: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/stargazing/84903812.html
Also,  in Sky & Telescope is another great article about the loss of dark skies and the growth of light pollution. The say it is one of the easiest problems to address on a local level. I wish I could do more without being rude to my neighbours who all (including the Church across the street) leave their lights on all night. What a waste of energy and they all could save money by either putting in motion lights or just turning out those lights.
If you like to participate in recording the brightness of your night sky read Get Ready for "Globe at Night'.
I am up for this!