Star Points for March, 2008; by Curtis Roelle March Comes in on a Lion Winter hasn’t ended and looking ahead to spring can’t hurt. After all, spring begins this month on Maundy Thursday, the 20th. In my opinion the most prominent constellations of spring is Leo the Lion. Leo is an ancient constellation whose association with the stars may have originated in Egypt according to Giuseppe Maria Sesti’s book The Glorious Constellations. In the dry season of the year desert lions approached the Nile valley during the annual flood while the sun was among the stars of Leo. A relationship between the Sphinx at Giza and Leo is suspected and the debate over specific aspects of their relationship goes on. In one form of the debate Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval writing in The Message of the Sphinx interpret an ancient astronomical alignment between the Sphinx and Leo as evidence that the Sphinx was built around 10,500 B.C. The conventional belief is that the Sphinx was built some 8,000 years later in the 4th dynasty. To view Leo and the spring sky during early March you must step outside at around 10 or 11 p.m. Fortunately our good friend Saturn is there to help us find Leo. Saturn is the bright “star” very high in sky as you face southeast. By the way, a great time to look at Saturn with a telescope is when it’s high in the sky just like it is now. It will appears sharper and its rings are visible even in small telescopes at low power. Looking to Saturn’s right you’ll see the star Regulus about five degrees away (or about half the width of a human fist). Regulus represents the lion’s heart. It marks the “handle” in a sickle shaped asterism of stars forming the lion’s head. The sickle resembles a backward question mark with Regulus representing the dot at its bottom. Left of the sickle you’ll see a right triangle of stars representing the lion’s hindquarters. Denebola is the left most of the three at the triangle’s apex. To amateur astronomers Leo is a happy hunting ground for galaxies. Leo contains five galaxies that were included in a catalog compiled by the 18th century French comet hunter Charles Messier. In fact, you can use Regulus, a low power eyepiece and a clock to find two of them in just about all but the smallest of telescopes. But it takes patience and time. First, make sure you are using your telescope’s lowest power eyepiece. The longer the focal length the lower the power. Compare the numbers shown on each eyepiece to determine which is your lowest power. (Hint: 25mm is lower power than 9mm.) Second, put Regulus in your eyepiece. Then nudge the telescope a little bit downward toward the ground, keeping Regulus in the eyepiece field of view. Third, let go of the telescope and start watching a clock or stop watch. Don’t touch the telescope at all; just let the earth’s rotation do the work. About 35 minutes later you should see a faint small hazy smudge in the eyepiece. This is Messier 95, a galaxy 33 million light-years away discovered in 1781. Carefully re-center the telescope on it and have a good look. When you’re done then let go of the telescope again and let it drift some more. After only two minutes or so another small faint fuzzy blob will be drifting into the field of view. Now you’re looking at Messier 96, a galaxy 31 million light-years away discovered in the same year as Messier 95. Easter falls on March 23 this year. The earliest that Easter can occur is March 22. According to Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar 2008 the next time Easter falls on March 22 will be in the year 2285. The Westminster Astronomical Society (WASI) will host a public star party at Bear Branch Nature Center (BBNC) in Carroll County on Friday, March 14. If you need assistance finding galaxies in Leo using the drift method described above, then bring your telescope along and perhaps they can help. For details visit the calendar page at WestminsterAstro.org.