Continuing the tour of stellar objects crossing the meridian line this month: a double-star in the 'Sickle' of Leo, a field barred spiral galaxy also in Leo, knwon to its friends as "NGC 2903"; and the 'Ghost of Jupiter' planetary nebula in Hydra.
- Star: Algieba: the ‘The Lion's Mane’.
- Galaxy: NGC 2903. Discovered by William Herschel in 1784, this barred spiral galaxy lies in Leo near the top of the lion's head, to the right of the sickle asterism
- Nebula: NGC 3242 - ‘Ghost of Jupiter’ nebula.
- Log in to post comments
In this month's edition:
The date of the Vernal Equinox and officially the start spring in the northern hemisphere falls on March 20th this year. This is when the Sun's path - the ecliptic, first crosses the celestial equator on its apparent journey northwards into the sky. The orientation of the Earth at the spring or autumnal equinox is such that neither of the poles are inclined towards the Sun and all locations experience equal hours of daylight and darkness - hence the term equinox... 
Continuing our new feature, we take a brief look at this month’s selection of objects of particular interest crossing the meridian line.
Starting this month is a new feature in which we take a brief look at various celestial objects of particular interest for one reason or another. These are a star, a galaxy, a nebula and a cluster. To keep matters simple all the objects are located on or close to the meridian line, due south, around mid month at 20:00h ( GMT time). The objects are ranked as Easy, Medium or a Challenge to observe with the type of optical aid required to spot them... 
The Sun reaches its lowest position in the sky on December 21st this year; the date of the winter solstice and officially the start of winter in the northern hemisphere. From our latitude the Sun arcs little more than 12 degrees above Southern horizon at local noon, standing before the stars of Sagittarius. Useful daylight amounts to just 7½ hrs - ’the shortest day’...