Can you see the light -- the zodiacal light?

March will see a change of season and, as we humans reckon it, we will change our way of marking time. Daylight-saving time starts at 2 a.m. for most of the United States and Canada the night of March 8. Spring officially begins in the northern hemisphere at the equinox, 5:45 p.m., Central Daylight Time, March 20. "Things, they are a-changin'..." as Bob Dylan noted a long time ago when I was in college.

Let me discuss a phenomenon I have never mentioned -- it can be very difficult to observe. I am referring to the zodiacal light. During March, at evening twilight and after the sun has set, one just might see the zodiacal light at a very dark site with an unobstructed western horizon. Look for a faint, tall pyramid or oval of light sloping a bit to the left as one looks west. The solar system is engulfed in much dust and very small particles a bit bigger than dust which are held in the additive gravity of the Sun and all the planets. When conditions are just right, looking to where the Sun has been, but now set, one might see the Sun 'front-lighting' these particles so as to form the aforementioned pyramid of hazy, faint light--a sort of glow against the darkened sky. In March, conditions are just right to observe the zodiacal light.

One evening in the 1980s, a friend of mine and I had stranded our car in a deep puddle of mud we did not see on a dirt road near his home. We knew we would need to get his truck to haul the car out of the puddle. We also knew we could make it on foot to the truck, so we set out on foot on this dark and very starry night. My friend looked west and saw the faint glow of the zodiacal light. At the time, he had just begun his interest in astronomy and he did not know what this light was. I had heard of the zodiacal light but I had never seen it and thought I never would, everyone writing about it describes it as a rare and faint thing. Not expecting this light, I had to scratch my head and use a process of elimination to identify what the light was. Finally, I decided we were looking at the zodiacal light--the only hazy glow of light that could be in that position at that time. What a surprise! I have seen it one other time, deep in the California desert on an observing trip with my brother. Now -- there is no reason why one of my readers could not see this and, if you do, you will be one of a very few who have seen it and who knows what you are seeing. I will be looking for it and, if possible, I will try to photograph it.

On the morning of March 12, a bit before dawn, the waning Moon will be just 3 degrees from Saturn and this would be an opportunity to identify Saturn if you have never found it. On March 21, a waxing crescent Moon will be less than 3 degrees from Mars, and, again, if you have never located Mars, this could be an advantageous time to look for it. Venus will be the rather bright object above both of them in the early evening. Jupiter will be nearly overhead by about 8 p.m. in the evening. It will not twinkle as the stars do, it will be slightly yellowish and you will see it as a dot, rather than as a pinpoint, the usual appearance of stars.

In winter, we look into the outer arms of the winter Milky Way. This winter Milky Way lies somewhat to the east of the constellation Orion and lines up roughly along a north-south line. However, as spring comes on, the Earth's orbit moves us to a position along its orbit where we start to see off the plane of the Milky Way and into very deep space. With the Milky Way not obscuring our view, we can see many faint galaxies that lie at enormous distances away from the Milky Way. April and May lets us see several of these with amateur telescopes and I will be commenting about them during those months. I have made some photographs of a few of these and I will include my images in those articles.

I hope you have a wonderful, warm and green spring! Skies should be more consistently clear as spring comes on. Spring is a great time to get out to a dark site and look at the wondrous night sky!

-- Dr. David Cater is a former faculty member of JBU. Email him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.

Community on 03/04/2015