Playing fast and loose with clocks

Okay, okay, I hear you, Venus is appearing in the west, not the east as I said last time. All I can say is I didn't have my trusty Boy Scout compass with me when I was out looking.

But, Venus is making a very nice showing these evenings and will do so clear into late March and early April when it will be joined by sister inner-planet Mercury.

It is that time again. The time when we start playing fast and loose with our clocks. On Sunday, March 14, Daylight Savings Time, often called "Summer Time" will begin at 2 a.m.

That is when we need to use the little mnemonic, "spring forward and fall back." In other words, in the spring the clocks are moved an hour forward and in the fall they are moved back to regain the hour lost.

The time change used to be in April and October. Now, thanks to the boys in "Foggy Bottom" (otherwise known as Washington, D.C.) the changes are in March and November.

Thanks to the clear-headed thinking of the boys back east, we now begin to operate on "summer time" while it is still winter. Spring doesn't officially start until March 20, when the Sun crosses the Equator from south to north. But, more about that next week.

SKY WATCH: The sky is still full of the bright stars of winter for our observing pleasure. High overhead in the south after sunset is the King of Winter, Orion, the Hunter, followed by his faithful canine companions, Canis Major and Canis Minor marked by the stars Sirius and Procyon respectively.

Up and right of Orion is Taurus, the Bull with orangey-red Aldebaran and the Hyades star cluster with the Pleiades cluster riding on the bull's shoulder. Both clusters are marvelous binocular targets.

Above and left of Orion is Gemini with Castor and Pollux and to their left is bright red Mars between Gemini and Cancer, the Crab. Although it is fading a bit from week to week after passing opposition recently, Mars is still an easily located object.

Keep following the ecliptic, the path the sun follows in the sky, which is also the path of the Zodiacal constellations, from Mars left and down through Leo, our herald of spring, toward Virgo, the Maiden and at about 7 p.m. MST yellowish Saturn will be visible as a bright spot just above the eastern horizon. (Yep, I am sure, used the compass this time.)

Binoculars will show the color of the ringed gas giant planet, but a telescope, even a small one, will show the marvelous rings which are starting to open from their closed, or flat, position when it was around on the far side of the Sun.

When Galileo first turned his telescope on Saturn he thought the planet had "ears" because all he could see was a couple of bumps on each side.

Several years later better optics revealed the true nature of those "ears." It is ironic that even the smallest telescope today often has better optics than were available to Galileo who set astronomy on its ears with his observations.

NEXT TIME: More astronomical blathering and all about the spring, or vernal, equinox.