March 2
The Mortal Twin
Sun Position
The Sun is in Pisces, declination near +7.5°, with the Northern Hemisphere gaining roughly two minutes of daylight per day now; in the Southern Hemisphere, evenings are shortening symmetrically.
Sky Highlight
The Gemini constellation reaches its highest point in the south (as seen from mid-northern latitudes) during evening hours in early March, a last good window to observe Castor and Pollux before they begin descending into the western sky in the weeks ahead.
Deep Sky Object
M35, an open cluster in Gemini, about 2,800 light-years away, containing several hundred stars resolvable in a small telescope; it sits near the foot of the twins and is well-placed in the west through early March. Visible from both hemispheres, better from the north.
Featured Star
Castor (α Gem) is a white main-sequence pair 51.5 light-years away, what looks like one star to the naked eye is actually six stars bound together in a complex triple-binary system. In mythology the mortal twin of Pollux; in physics, a lesson in how much a single point of light can hide.
Around This Date
- March 2, 1972Pioneer 10 launched from Cape Canaveral, becoming the first spacecraft designed to travel through the asteroid belt and make a direct observation of Jupiter.
- March 2, 1978Soyuz 28 launched carrying Czech cosmonaut Vladimír Remek, the first person from a country other than the US or USSR to fly in space.
Six stars tucked into one point of light. Castor holds its secret patiently above the fading winter sky.