The Gardens of the Night Sky 25th to 31st March 2024

Whoosh, another Month bites the dust.

Go East young/old, man/woman.

The eastern horizon has a wonderful trio of planets (called ‘wanderers’ in antiquity) 30 minutes before the onset of another glorious West Australian sunrise. Why ‘wanderers’? because they didn’t travel at the same speed as the stars and would occasionally freak the crap out of the Sages, Seers and Kings Astronomers when they appeared to move backwards.

The brightest and lowest to the horizon is easily found, the planet Venus just because its bloody bright, sitting 10 deg. up.

By Wednesday, the ‘eared’ planet Saturn can be found 5 deg. above Venus in 10×50 binoculars outside the City glow (Thanks Basil) and presenting what Galileo would have seen in his primitive telescope; 7 x 50 will just not do the job.

Now, twice the last distance up will hopefully find you the smaller and duller planet Mars, but binoculars are a must.

Go West young/old, man/woman.

The evening horizon takes on a solo front with the planet Jupiter just after sunset, maybe head to Rockingham foreshore or Waikiki/Warnbro/Port Kennedy, grab a family fish and chips and locate it 15 deg. above the WNW to NW and watch it sink into the ocean by 8.15pm in WNW.

Having done that, the waning Moon is visible eastwards all week and a test for the family with binoculars to try and see the smallest feature in a particular area ie a crater, the Maria seabed’s, the mountains or riles. Another great pastime is to get a Lunar map and try and find all the names craters as well as where mankind has landed. Don’t forget, if you are short or long sighted you may not need your glasses on when using binoculars, if you have an astigmatism, you will.

Most stargazing is best done by getting away from City and suburban lights, which is becoming harder as costly and wasteful light pollution is rife around WA especially in the City. If you want your children and grandchildren to have a night sky, buy them a membership to the www.australasiandarkskyalliance.org and if they need convincing, maybe take a weekend away in the country with tripod and binoculars in order to appreciate its true beauty.

Dr Craig Bowers MP8138.

All night sky screenshots are courtesy of Stellarium planetarium

Zotti, G., Hoffmann, S. M., Wolf, A., Chéreau, F., & Chéreau, G. (2021). The Simulated Sky: Stellarium for Cultural Astronomy Research. Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, 6(2), 221–258. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.17822