This week, the moon will have two ?close encounters? withspectacular star clusters.
On Saturday evening, March 20, look for the thin crescentmoon as soon as the sky begins to get dark after sunset. You will see the moonright in front of the Pleiades, the brightest star cluster in the sky.
The Pleiades, number 45 in Charles Messier?s famous catalogof deep sky objects, has been known since antiquity. It is one of the closesstar clusters to our sun, 410 light-years distant in the constellation Taurus.
Look for ?the old moon in the new moon?s arms.? It is thepart of the moon not in sunlight, but illuminated by earthshine, sunlightreflected from the nearly full Earth in the lunar sky.
If you watch closely with a telescope, you may actuallywitness a lunar occultation as the moon passes in front of one or more stars.Notice how the stars winkinstantaneously out, proof of the moon?s lack of an atmosphere.
Two nights later, on Monday March 22, the moon will beapproaching another starcluster, Messier 35 in Gemini. This cluster is larger and richer in starsthan the Pleiades, but is much farther away, 2,800 light years from the sun.The moon will be a wider crescent, and the earthshine less pronounced. As thenight progresses, the moon will draw closer to M35, passing closest around thetime of moonset for new world observers.
Both these eventswill be beautiful to see. The Pleiades encounter can be appreciated with thenaked eye or binoculars; the M35 encounter will be best in binoculars or asmall telescope.
This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, theleader in space science curriculum solutions.
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