It may come as a surprise to many people, but the sun passes through 13 officially recognized constellations on its annual trek across the celestial dome. The 13th constellation is Ophiuchus, in which the sun spends nearly three weeks in December. There is another constellation in which the sun just nicks its boundary, Cetus, the Whale. Only 10% of the disk of the sun crosses into it and its partial border incursion lasts only twelve hours or so. Here are the dates and times that this relatively unknown event occurs:
Year Incursion begins Incursion ends
2010 3/27, 4:10 pm EDT 3/28, 5:40 am EDT
2011 3/27, 10:20 pm EDT 3/28, 11:45 am EDT
2012 3/27, 4:20 am EDT 3/27, 5:50 pm EDT
2013 3/27, 10:40 am EDT 3/28, 12:10 am EDT
2014 3/27, 4:50 pm EDT 3/28, 6:20 am EDT
2015 3/27, 10:50 pm EDT 3/28, 12:20 pm EDT
Keep in mind that the constellation boundaries are artificial constructs created by the International Astronomical Union about eighty years ago. They wanted to divide the sky into standardized sections so when an object in a particular spot in the sky was discussed, all astronomers would know where they were referring.
Such is our view from Earth...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment