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Kekaomakali‘i (the Canoe Bailer) is now filling the western region of the sky. In this starline we can make out the stars that make up Kaheiheionakeiki, also well known as Orion the Hunter.
South of Orion, the incredibly bright ‘A‘a is the brightest star that we can see in the nighttime sky. To the north and west of Orion, the planet Mars and the star cluster of Makali‘i are preparing to set into Manu Ho‘olua. Looking toward the Ko‘olau quadrant in the northeast and in compass house Nalani, we see the constellation Nahiku (Ursa Major). In the eastern sky is Hokupa (Leo), rising in the compass house La Ko‘olau. The evening sky is full of bright objects to cast your gaze upon.
The equinox, mauiili, refers to equal nights: a day in which time is split equally between darkness and sunlight. It occurs twice annually, once in the spring, the other in the fall.
On March 20 at 5:33 a.m., the sun will cross Earth’s equator heading north, and we will wake up to the first day of spring, while our cousins in the Southern Hemisphere will awaken to the first day of fall. “Equinox” is a Latin word — “aequus” meaning equal and “nox” meaning night — and it occurs on only two days of the year when the sun rises due east, Hikina, and sets due west, Komohana.
“A Hua He Inoa” (“To Call Forth a Name”) is a Hawaiian naming program for celestial objects discovered by Hawaii’s world-class telescopes. The team includes University of Hawaii at Hilo language educators, cultural experts, astronomers and invited university and high school students.
The idea for the project came from Kona businessman John De Fries. He suggests that “we could elevate the nature of astronomers’ work on the mountain to a level that would embrace the origins that Hawaiians understood themselves to come from.”
In a 2017 memo to the Kahu Ku Mauna advisory council and the Office of Maunakea Management (now the Center for Maunakea Stewardship), De Fries requested that future observatory leases require the use of Hawaiian language when naming new discoveries.
Featured Mauna Kea discovery/observation
While it is well known that the massive stars of our universe will die in energetic events called supernovae, the exact details of the process are still being understood.
Earlier this year, astronomers made a breakthrough discovery in this area of science. By utilizing the W.M. Keck Observatories on Mauna Kea and Pan-STAARS on Haleakala, researchers were able to observe the full process of a star going supernova.
The discovery and follow-up observations defy many of the previous ideas of how red supergiant stars evolve in the immediate moments before the supernova. While these events are the epitome of destruction on a massive scale, they are also events of creation.
Type II supernovae are the primary creation source for most of the heaviest elements in the universe; most of the atoms inside our bodies right now were created in a Type II supernova that occurred billions of years ago.
As astronomers are now witnessing one of these events in real time, we can further our investigations into our own cosmic origins.
Special events
As the planets continue their cosmic dance in the early morning sky, observers will be able to witness a number of planetary conjunctions through the first half of the year.
A conjunction is when two celestial objects, typically planets, appear to be extremely close to each other in the sky from our perspective on Earth. In ancient times the conjunction of planets was considered a significant event, as the motion of the planets was thought to predict the future.
While conjunctions are not considered to be scientifically significant today, they do make for quite beautiful events as two planets will appear to merge into one light.
The first conjunction in the collection of planets that will decorate the early morning sky will take place on Wednesday. Mercury and Saturn will rise at about 5:30 a.m. and be visible together through dawn. Both are fairly faint planets, and they will appear to be quite close to the horizon during their conjunction.
Observers using binoculars or telescopes to view the event are encouraged to be careful with their equipment during dawn and as the sun rises. It is not uncommon for stargazers to severely damage their eyesight by trying to look at Mercury in a telescope and accidentally putting their field of view too close to the rising sun.
The next conjunction for early-morning stargazers will occur about two weeks later on March 15, when Venus and Mars will make their closest approach to each other. In this conjunction the two planets will be almost 5 degrees away from each other, far enough that you will be able to see their separation without assistance.
Venus and Mars will rise just before 4 a.m. and be easily visible through dawn. These two bright planets will be some of the last objects to fade as dawn illuminates the sky.
The last conjunction in March will occur March 28, when Venus and Saturn will be approximately 2 degrees away from each other in the sky. Immediately beneath the two planets will be the Kane waning crescent moon.
Three more conjunctions will occur in the early morning sky through the end of May, which we will discuss in the next editions of Skywatch: Mars and Saturn on April 4, Venus and Jupiter on April 30 and finally Mars and Jupiter on May 28.
As we watch this series of conjunctions, we are studying the stars in the ways that people did long before telescopes. By tracking these planets, we take notes on which planets “move” the fastest in the sky and can use this information to determine which planets are closest and farthest from the sun and from us.
Morning observations
As the planets dance in the eastern early morning sky, other celestial shapes will decorate the background.
Toward the south, early-morning observers will be able to see the spectacular bulge of the Milky Way galaxy tucked behind the constellations of Maui’s Fishhook (Scorpius) and Pimoe, an ulua fish (Sagittarius or the Teapot). When we look at the bulge of the Milky Way, we are looking in through the dense material of our galaxy itself and to the very center of the Milky Way. It is here where astronomers on Mauna Kea study the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.
All of this can be seen just before sunrise. The sun will rise closer to 6:50 a.m. as March begins and closer to 6:25 a.m. toward the end of the month as the days continue to get longer approaching summer. Dawn will begin to color the sky starting around 5:40 to 6 a.m.
March Skywatch by Honolulu Star-Advertiser
The ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii is a center for informal science education at the University of Hawaii at Hilo showcasing astronomy and Hawaiian culture as parallel journeys of human exploration.
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