Moon highlights two colorful springtime stars
5 comments Print Me Email to FriendTonight's Sky for Saturday, Mar 22 2008
Tonight, the waning gibbous moon beams nearby two bright and beautiful stars, Arcturus and Spica. Sparkling above the eastern horizon at early to mid evening, these stars travel westward (along with the moon) throughout the night, and stand high in your southern sky in the wee hours after midnight. As dawn starts to color the sky, these gems light up the western sky.
In early spring, these two springtime stars shine all night long.
Although yellow-orange Arcturus appears much brighter than blue-white Spica to our eye, that’s only because Spica is so much farther away from us. Arcturus resides about 37 light-years away, whereas Spica lies some 7 times farther off than that, at 260 light-years distant. If Arcturus stood at the sun’s distance from us, it’d shine over 100 times more brightly than the sun. But Spica at the sun’s distance away would shine with the firepower of over 2,000 suns!
Unlike the fickle moon, the Big Dipper guides you to these springtime stars, Arcturus and Spica, with the utmost faithfulness. At nightfall, the Big Dipper stands on its handle in your northeast sky, and it looks to me like a kite flying in the March wind.
Thanks for sharing this info about these two stars,with me and others. Looking foward to tonight/early morning to catch this amazing sight. Thanks again from Carolina
Daniel,
It’s a pleasure to share the wonders of the night sky with our Earth & Sky audience. What’s more, correspondence doubles that pleasure. Thanks for writing!
Bruce
Hi on everyone :) I really love to see the night sky but more like to fly there…. I really dream to roam in the universe…
Hello,did anybody notice the light from the moon tonight,i told my son it looked like the batman signal.What was the reason for that?
Mitakoz & Nicole,
I guess you don’t have to be in a rocket ship to fly. Nicole, you say the moon looks like a “batman signal.” Does this mean the moon was throwing out a long beam of light, like a searchlight?
Bruce