Today:
The Big Dipper looks like a question mark in the northeast. After months of asking “when is Spring?”, follow this question mark’s curve to find a star that announces Spring to our skies. Rising near 8:15 this evening, the bright star Arcturus comes up in the east-northeast, arriving each March in the evenings.
Friday:
The Scorpion is making his usual pre-dawn appearance as winter enters its final days. From 2:30 to 5:30 AM EDT, this “S”-shaped constellation climbs into the southeast, with its red star Antares due south at 5:40 AM, with its head and claws to the upper right, and body and tail curling like an “S” toward the horizon.
Saturday:
Today marks the anniversary of the discovery of Pluto. Clyde Tombaugh was examining pictures taken through the telescope at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona in January, 1930, over a period of days. One of the “stars” in the image moved while the stars remained in place, revealing the frozen world for the first time.