Today:
Looking to the west-northwest this evening near 7:00 PM, a vertical string of three moderately bright stars marks the constellation Andromeda. From the middle star, look for two fainter stars to its right, and then a smudge of light. This is the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest neighboring galaxy, 2.5 million light years away.
Saturday:
Orion is now slipping slowly into the southwest, found about one third of the way up from the horizon around 8:30 PM EST this evening. The bright star below his three belt stars, Rigel, remains distinct. A stellar powerhouse, Rigel generates 120,000 times more light than our Sun, but at a distance of nearly 900 light years.
Sunday:
Daylight Saving Time begins today, as we move the clocks ahead one hour, making the sunrise and sunset an hour later. There is actually a connection to astronomy, as time used to be “local”, based on the Sun at noon. That changed in the 1800s, when trains needed a “standard” time system.