Sunday,  March 17, 2013 • Vol. 14--No. 241 • 26 of 46 •  Other Editions

Moon passes in between Jupiter and Aldebaran on March 17

• Today's sky chart shows the waxing crescent moon, the dazzling planet Jupiter and the star Aldebaran as they appear this Sunday evening (March 17) in North America. But people in the world's Eastern Hemisphere - Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zea

land - won't see the threesome like this in their part of the world. Instead, they'll see the moon forming a more widespread triangle with Jupiter and Aldebaran.
• No matter where you live, however, look first for the waxing crescent moon and you can't miss nearby Jupiter. Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus the Bull, might not stand out that greatly in the lunar glare, and you may need binoculars to see the Pleiades star cluster.
• The ruddy color of Aldebaran really stands out in a dark country sky or in binoculars. Any reddish star that you can see with the unaided eye is an old, bloated star in the autumn of its years. Astronomers also expect our middle-aged sun to swell into a red giant star when it reaches old age in another 5 billion or so years.
• Does this mean that all red-colored stars have one foot in the grave? No, just those that you can see with the unaided eye. There are billions of long-living red dwarf stars in our Milky Way galaxy that are still in the heyday of youth, though they are all too small and faint to see without an optical aid.
• This Sunday night, use the moon to find the planet Jupiter, the star Aldebaran and the Pleaides star cluster!
• Tonight for binoculars: Comet PANSTARRS still visible at evening dusk!

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