March 5
A Name Written Backward
Sun Position
The Sun is in Pisces at declination near +9.5°; in the Northern Hemisphere the days are noticeably lengthening, while Southern Hemisphere observers are past their late-summer peak of evening light.
Sky Highlight
Vela, the sail of the Argo, is well-placed in the southern evening sky in March. From latitudes below about +30°, the Vela Supernova Remnant is within reach of binoculars, a faint but vast shell of gas spanning nearly 8° of sky, the remnant of a star that exploded roughly 11,000–12,000 years ago.
Deep Sky Object
NGC 2736 (Pencil Nebula), a narrow filament of the Vela Supernova Remnant, about 815 light-years away; it is one of the sharper, more photogenic sections of the remnant and a striking example of a supernova shockwave visible in long-exposure images. Best seen from the Southern Hemisphere and tropical latitudes.
Featured Star
Regor (γ² Vel) sits about 1,096 light-years away in Vela as a rare Wolf-Rayet star paired with a blue giant (spectral class WC8 + O7.5III) and is among the closest Wolf-Rayet stars to Earth, shedding its outer layers at ferocious rates into a stellar wind. Its informal name is 'Roger' spelled backward, given by Apollo 1 astronaut Gus Grissom for fellow astronaut Roger Chaffee, who died in the 1967 launchpad fire.
Around This Date
- March 5, 1979Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Jupiter, returning the first detailed images of the planet's atmosphere and discovering active volcanoes on the moon Io.
- January 27, 1967Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee died in a launchpad fire during a launch rehearsal, the tragedy that gives Regor its informal name.
A star named in grief and spelled in reverse: Regor burns on, carrying the memory of a man who never reached the sky.