EYES TO THE SKY: Heavenly mornings; starting March 12, morning comes later

March 6 – 19, 2017

South to southwest before dawn, March 18-19, slightly changed from this diagram, which was drawn for Feb. 19.

Mt. Washington — Wake up early and go out, as in a dream, to rendezvous with a ringed planet, a giant scorpion, a centaur that is an archer, and the king of the gods planet. Constellations that appear in winter’s pre-dawn sky are most familiar seen as patterns of summer nights, so it is particularly intriguing to see them in morning darkness and, this year, in the company of planets Saturn and Jupiter. During the first week of this post, dawn is around 5:50 a.m. and sunrise around 6:15 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. On Sunday, March 12, Eastern Daylight Time begins: dawn (civil twilight) is at 6:43 a.m., sunrise at 7:11 a.m.

Dawn is sometimes considered the beginning of morning twilight, sometimes the period of twilight, and sometimes the time of sunrise. Image courtesy Wikipedia

When clock time springs ahead an hour, not-so-early risers may look out a southwest-facing window at dawn to find star-like Jupiter rather low to the horizon. Saturn beams in the south to the left of its bigger, brighter neighbor. Earlier, until about an hour before sunrise in environments where there’s minimal light pollution, the full figures of Scorpius the Scorpion and Sagittarius the Archer are sketched upon the heavens. Golden Saturn shines in Sagittarius. The red star to the right of Saturn is Antares, at the heart of Scorpius. The light of the approaching sun washes out the stars that compose the constellations, leaving luminous Antares and Saturn still shining.

Civil, nautical and astronomical dawn, when
defined as the beginning time of the corresponding twilight. Image courtesy Wikipedia (terminology the same for twilight before sunrise and after sunset. j.i.)

Jupiter, nearly at its brightest, is visible after all the other celestial company has vanished. When viewing Jupiter before dawn, notice the giant planet’s companion, blue-white Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo the Virgin.

The Full Sap Moon occurs at 10:54 a.m. on Sunday the 12^th. Look due west for moonset at 7:18 that morning and moonrise above the eastern horizon at 7:14 in the evening.

From the 12^th through the 15^th, the moon is in the vicinity of Jupiter. Luna then heads toward Scorpius and arrives at Saturn as half moon on the 20^th.

Refresh! Join the planets and brightest stars in the heavenly mornings.