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¡SkyCaramba! Let me tell you about an exciting event coming up on the morning
of March 20th, 2014. A bright
star will disappear for up to 14 seconds.
No, it's not going to disappear like a light
turning off and turning back on. No reason for it to do that.
What's gonna happen is an object--an asteroid--will pass
right in front of it just like this tennis ball passed right in front of
little keychain light.
The star is Regulus--a bright blue star often called the heart of Leo the Lion.
It's at the bottom of the sickle or backward question mark that makes the
lion's head.
The sickle is pretty easy to see. There's a triangular star group to the left that
makes the lion's tail.
You'll find the constellation by looking to the southwest at least a few minutes
before the asteroid
hides it. When an asteroid, the moon, or a planet
hides a star, it said to be occulting the star.
The event is called an occultation. Occultations happen all the time, but
usually when it's an asteroid hiding
a star it's hiding a very dim star that requires binoculars or a telescope to
see in the first place.
Since Regulus is one of the brightest stars in the sky,
nearly everyone who's in the right place at the right time
will be able to see this occultation. Now what I just said is important to
know.
There's a 45 mile wide strip that goes from the Atlantic Ocean
across the Northeast United States through eastern Canada
and across Hudson Bay where this occultation will be visible. If you're there,
be happy! Most people who have heard about this event
wish we could be there and most of us can't.
At least we can look up the event on live webcams that night
or video uploads the next day. Go to SkyCaramba.com to look up the
visibility map and time predictions for this event.
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and Google+. ¡SkyCaramba!