Spring Ahead: Spring…or No Spring

Clocks go forward one hour to Daylight Saving Time Sunday morning at 2 a.m. Day length is now 11h20m with sunrise at 6:32 and sunset at 5:53, almost exactly 12/12 – by the 3rd week of March.

The private mission Mars One has cut its applicant pool from over 200,000 down to 660. Training and challenges will cut to 24, then training begins for the first 4-person team to land on Mars in 2025. The plan is to send a new 4-person team every two years – after surface infrastructure has been sent. There are no plans to bring any of these intrepid explorers back from Mars. They are not kidding. They are serious.

Mars and Venus still hanging together in the evening sky right after sunset. But tonight it’s the moon with Jupiter drawing attention; Saturn rises in the east after 1:30, high in the pre-dawn ESE 45 mins before sunrise.

Constellations are now really showing seasonal shift. Leo now well up in the east at nightfall, Andromeda gone by then and Orion moving west past the meridian.

Photo: flickr user Glendon Rolston