Star Party at Oracle State Park, 22 February 2025. Photo by Mike Weasner.

Welcome to the 3rd edition of “Oracle Night Sky Charm”. These monthly articles are intended to help you enjoy Oracle’s Night Sky. You will also learn why it is important to protect our Night Sky Heritage.

The Planets

By mid-March, the bright planet Venus has disappeared from the western evening sky by sunset. It becomes the “Morning Star” in April. Bright Jupiter and Mars continue to be nicely visible high in the early evening sky. If you have good eyes, a dark sky, and know where to look, you may see the planet Uranus with just your eyes.

Will you see a “Nova”?

For most of 2024, astronomers expected that a star known as “T CrB” (or the “Blaze Star”) in the constellation of Corona Borealis would go “nova” and brighten to naked eye visibility. It had done this about every 80 years in the past. But it didn’t happen in 2024. Will it in 2025? Normally the star is faint (you can see it with good binoculars), but when it does go nova it will be a “new star” to your eyes. The star chart below shows the position of T CrB. The photograph shows the constellation of Corona Borealis as seen early evening in April 2024. Start watching for the T CrB nova in early April. You might be the first person to see it!

Corona Borealis. View to the east about 9 PM in April. Photo by Mike Weasner.

Total Lunar Eclipse

There was a Total Lunar Eclipse on the night of 13-14 March. The Partial Phase began at 10:09 PM. The Total Eclipse began at 11:26 PM, with the maximum eclipse at 11:59 PM. The Total Eclipse ended at 12:32 AM on the 14th. The Partial Phase ended at 1:48 AM on the 14th. Unfortunately, Oracle was mostly clouded out. Did you get to enjoy it? If you were lucky you might have seen the totally eclipsed Moon through the clouds about mid-night, as seen in this photograph.

Star Parties

There was a Star Party at Oracle State Park on 22 February. If you missed it, here’s a report on the event. The next Star Party at the Park will be on Saturday, 26 April. This will be a celebration of International Dark Sky Week 2025 (21-28 April) and the annual celebration of Oracle State Park becoming the first Arizona State Park to be designated as an “International Dark Sky Park” in 2014..

Protecting the Night Sky

For many reasons, it is important to protect the dark Night Sky from unnecessary and bad outdoor lighting. Life on planet Earth evolved over millions of years with a day/night cycle. Artificial Light at Night (whether indoor or outdoor) interrupts that cycle and can cause severe health issues in humans and wildlife, contribute to climate change, and wastes billions of residential, business, and government tax dollars every year on unnecessary energy costs. Protecting the natural nocturnal environment is actually simple. Just follow these “Five Lighting Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting”.

Are your neighbor’s lights shining into your backyard, your bedroom, or reflecting off your TV screen? Do your lights shine onto your neighbor’s property? This type of Light Pollution is known as Light Nuisance and Light Trespass. To learn more about the Five Principles, visit DarkSky International.

If there is something you would like discussed in “Oracle Night Sky Charm”, email Mike Weasner at mweasner@mac.com. Mike has been a volunteer at Oracle State Park since 2014 and is a past Vice President and past President of Friends of Oracle State Park.

Oracle Night Sky Charm