If you live in North America and are set to have clear skies the night of Thursday to Friday, then you’ll have a chance to see a total lunar eclipse this week!
Join Planetarium Astronomer Scott Young to learn how lunar eclipses occur, and when to be on the watch for this one.
Have you heard of Manitoban E. Cora Hind? Renowned agricultural journalist, world traveler, and suffragist, she has a pretty fascinating story! Join Cortney this International Women’s Day to learn more about E. Cora Hind and see some of the objects from her in our collection.
Chris is here to lift our spirits with the science behind Bernoulli’s principle of lift! Join him in the Science Gallery to do a simple experiment that you can try out at home with nothing more than a strip of toilet paper.
March brings the spring equinox, warmer weather, and the last chance to see the winter constellations. This year, March also hosts a pair of eclipses (one visible from North America) and a planetary line-up that is almost as good as it gets.
![A simulated view of the "parade of planets" on March 2, 2025. [Image: Stellarium]](https://manitobamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/stellarium-001-e1740764429838.png)
The “Planetary Parade”: While it’s over-hyped online by people who don’t know the sky very well, this month *is* a good time to spot the planets. In late February and early March, we can see 4 of the 5 bright planets at the same time in early evening. But, it isn’t any more spectacular than it has been for the last month – the planets are effectively always in a “parade”, and so if you didn’t notice it in January or February you might wonder what the fuss is all about. That’s social media for you – anything that reliably generates “likes” or “shares” will be used to drive engagement without managing expectations or even providing accurate content.
Bottom line: you can see most of the planets this month, including Mercury which is generally the hardest one to see because it’s so close to the sun. Enjoy the view!
Mercury reaches its best visibility of 2025 this month, rising into the evening sky at the beginning of the month.
Venus still dominates the western sky at sunset at the beginning of March, but it dives towards the Sun by mid-March. For a few days around its closest conjunction to the Sun, it will be visible in both the morning and evening sky at the same time. See the Sky Calendar for details.
Earth reaches the point in its orbit when its poles are perpendicular to its orbital path around the Sun. We call this occurrence the equinox, and this year the Spring Equinox occurs at 4:01 a.m. Central Daylight Time on March 20, 2025. While this marks the astronomical beginning of spring, it has little connection to the weather. The main event is that the hours of daylight and nighttime are equal – equinox means “equal night”. Any stories about being able to balance an egg on its end only during the equinox are false – you can do that any day of the year, if you have the time and patience for it.
Mars is still bright in the evening sky, forming an ever-changing triangle with the bright stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini. The Moon is nearby on the evening of March 8th.
Jupiter still shines brightly in the evening sky, high in the southwest after sunset in the constellations of Taurus.
Saturn drops into the sunset glare early in the month, and is lost to sight. You *might* catch it in binoculars during the first few days of the month below Mercury, if you have a perfectly flat horizon and crystal-clear skies.
Uranus is to the right of Jupiter, but invisible to the unaided eye. A pair of binoculars will show it as a star-like dot among a sea of other star-like dots; you need a detailed finder chart like those in the RASC Observers’ Handbook to track it down.
Neptune, while technically part of the “parade”, is invisible without a telescope at the best of times, and this month is not the best of times. Neptune is near Venus in the bright twilight sky and probably unobservable this month.
Of the five known dwarf planets, none are visible with typical backyard telescopes this month.
All times are given in the local time for Manitoba: Central Standard Time (CST) before March 9, and Central Daylight Time beginning at 2:00 a.m. on March 9, 2025. However, most of these events are visible across Canada at the same local time without adjusting for time zones.
Saturday, Mar. 1, 2025 (evening): Mercury begins its two-week period of visibility, rising into the evening sky below Venus. The very thin crescent Moon is nearby on March 1, but likely invisible in the bright sky without binoculars or cameras. (For the “young moon” hunters, it’s a 24-hour-old moon at sunset in Manitoba, close to the limit for what is potentially visible. Flat horizons and clear skies are a must!)
Sunday, Mar. 2, 2025 (evening): The crescent Moon is above Venus in the evening sky, visible to the unaided eye and with glorious Earthshine illuminating the dark side. Photo op!
Monday, March 3, 2025 (evening): The crescent Moon is mid-way between Venus and Jupiter, while Mercury continues to rise higher in the west below Venus.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025 (evening): The Moon and Jupiter form a nice grouping with Aldebaran and the Pleiades star cluster this evening.
Thursday, March 6, 2025 (evening sky): The Moon is above Jupiter, high in the southwest in the evening sky.
Saturday, March 8, 2025 (evening): Starting tonight, the planets Mercury and Venus are visible in the same field of view of typical household binoculars (roughly a 7-degree field). They’ll remain this close until Mercury is lost from sight around March 14.
Also tonight, the Moon is just above Mars high in the southeast after sunset, with the two bright stars Castor and Pollux nearby. Over the course of the night you can see the Moon’s orbital motion as it passes Mars and moves farther away. At 8pm CDT the Moon is right above Mars; by 3am CDT it has moved to be mid-way between Mars and Castor.
Finally, unless you’re up all night, set your non-internet clocks ahead one hour before you go to bed. Daylight Savings Time starts tomorrow at 2am (1:59 a.m. Central Standard Time is followed by 3:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time).
Sunday, March 9, 2025 (morning): Daylight Savings Time started this morning.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025 (evening): Mercury reaches its highest point above the horizon, while Venus has sunk down to almost meet it. After tonight both Mercury and Venus will rapidly sink into the sunset glow.
Thursday, March 13 (evening): The total lunar eclipse begins at 10:57 p.m. CDT tonight and extends throughout the night into early Friday morning. Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse is absolutely safe to watch.
For local times for other locations across North America, visit the NASA Science Directorate Eclipse Page.
Thursday, March 20, 2025: The Vernal Equinox occurs at 4:01 a.m. Central Daylight Time, marking the beginning of astronomical spring. Also on this date, Venus begins to be visible in both the evening and morning skies (see the entry for March 23 for details).
Sunday, March 23, 2025: The Earth passes through the plane of Saturn’s rings. This would afford a rare view of the rings “disappearing”, but unfortunately Saturn will be too close to the Sun for the event to be easily visible.
Also today, Venus passes between us and the Sun (actually, just “above” the Sun from our point of view). For a few days on either side of this, Venus will be visible in both the evening sky after sunset and the morning sky before sunrise before transitioning into a morning-only object.
Saturday, March 29, 2025: There is a partial solar eclipse on this date, but it is only visible from northeastern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and northwestern Europe. For details on the view from your location, use this link.
Spring break at the Planetarium: Our spring break programming begins Saturday, March 29 and extends through Sunday, April 6, 2025, open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Our brand new family show, “Voyage of the Stars: A Sea and Space Adventure” premieres, and we’ll also have an encore presentation of “Edge of Darkness”, which takes us among the dwarf planets such as Ceres and Pluto. Advance tickets and showtimes are available here.
Outside of the regular events listed above, there are other things we see in the sky that can’t always be predicted in advance.
Aurora borealis, the northern lights, are becoming a more common sight again as the Sun goes through the maximum of its 11-year cycle of activity. Particles from the Sun interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and the high upper atmosphere to create glowing curtains of light around the north (and south) magnetic poles of the planet. Manitoba is well-positioned relative to the north magnetic pole to see these displays often, but they still can’t be forecast very far in advance. A site like Space Weather can provide updates on solar activity and aurora forecasts for the next 48 hours. The best way to see the aurora is to spend a lot of time out under the stars, so that you are there when they occur.,
Random meteors (also known as falling or shooting stars) occur every clear night at the rate of about 5-10 per hour. Most people don’t see them because of light pollution from cities, or because they don’t watch the sky uninterrupted for an hour straight. They happen so quickly that a single glance down at your phone or exposure to light can make you miss one.
Satellites are becoming extremely common sights in the hours after sunset and before dawn. Appearing as a moving star that takes a few minutes to cross the sky, they appear seemingly out of nowhere. These range from the International Space Station and Chinese space station Tianhe, which have people living on them full-time, to remote sensing and spy satellites, to burnt-out rocket parts and dead satellites. These can be predicted in advance (or identified after the fact) using a site like Heavens Above by selecting your location.
February may be coming to an end, but our love of reading sure isn’t! In this video, our resident Book Girly, Cortney, shows us some of her favourite items in the museum’s book collection – a comic strip series about the life of Louis Riel.
Only a small percentage of the 2.9 million artifacts and specimens in the Museum Collection are able to be displayed at one time. The rest are kept carefully preserved in collections storage, but that doesn’t just mean they’re just piled on shelves or in cupboards out of sight. Everything is carefully stored to ensure its preserved for as long as possible, and for some artifacts that means keeping them cold!
Find out why cold storage is important for preserving certain artifacts in this video with Senior Conservator Carolyn Sirett.
You might be surprised to learn that cougars are found in Manitoba, but they’ve likely existed here for thousands of years!
In this video, join Dr. Randy Mooi in the Parklands Gallery to learn about the features that make this animal such a powerful predator.
The A. and M. Hurtig Furriers shop is a new exhibit in the Winnipeg 1920 Cityscape at the Manitoba Museum, featuring authentic fur accessories and furrier tools from the early 20th century. The exhibit includes the front entrance display and the backroom workshop. A. and M. Hurtig Furriers was only one of forty-three furrier shops in Winnipeg.
The new A & M Hurtig Furriers exhibit in the Winnipeg 1920 Gallery.
Max Hurtig. Jewish Post, Sept. 7, 1950. Jewish Heritage Centre of Canada
Adolph and Max Hurtig were Jewish immigrants from Romania who arrived in Winnipeg in 1908. Ten years later they founded the A. and M. Hurtig Furriers business. Anne Hurtig, a relative, was the bookkeeper of the shop. Their employees made fur coats and accessories for a growing Winnipeg population. The early shop was at 476 Portage Ave, across from the current University of Winnipeg, and they in 1935 they moved to 262 Portage Ave.
By the 1920s, about half of all garment industry workers and owners in Winnipeg were Jewish.[i] In Canada, about one third of all furriers were from the Jewish community. [ii] During this period, First Nations trappers across Western Canada also sold furs directly to Jewish itinerant traders, challenging large companies like the HBC.[iii] In the late 1920s and 30s, Hurtig Furriers became a site of bitter labour disputes that pitted labour unionists against garment and furrier business owners. This was resolved once union contracts were finally signed, and military contracts in the Second World War created huge demand for their products.
[i] https://www.jhcwc.org/exhibitions/a-stitch-in-time/the-garment-business/
[ii] Louis Rosenberg. Canada’s Jews: A social and economic study of the Jews in Canada. 1939. Pp178-179.
[iii] Colpitts, George. Itinerant Jewish and Arabic Trading in the Dene’s North, 1916-1930. 2013. Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, p 172.
The A & M Hurtig Furriers workshop in the Winnipeg 1920 Gallery.
The new A & M Hurtig Furriers exhibit in the Winnipeg 1920 Gallery, featuring the storefront area.
Manitoba Free Press ad, June 13, 1920.
The Hurtigs were very involved in Winnipeg’s Jewish community, contributing to the Shaarey Zadek and Beth Abraham Synagogues, the Jewish welfare fund, and more.
The first large group of Jewish immigrants to arrive in Winnipeg were refugees from the 1881 Russian pogroms – organized massacres and looting of Jewish settlements. More Jewish immigrants from other parts of Europe arrived over the decades, and by 1920 over 10,000 Jews lived in Winnipeg. Synagogues and mutual aid societies were founded, especially in the North End. Though the Jewish community was essential to Winnipeg’s growth and prosperity, anti-Semitism was widespread at this time. Many Jews were excluded from clubs, residential areas, employment, and some university programs. After the Second World War, many Holocaust survivors relocated in Winnipeg.
For more detailed information about Jewish participation in the garment trade in Winnipeg, visit the virtual exhibit “A Stitch in Time,” created by the Jewish Heritage Centre of Canada: https://www.jhcwc.org/exhibitions/a-stitch-in-time/
Image: In 1935 the Hurtigs moved shop to a big, shiny, new Art Deco building at 262 Portage Ave. This building was designed by Green Blankstein Russell and Ham, and is considered one the most important Art Deco business buildings in Winnipeg. It currently stands empty, the one-time home of Dominion News. For more details visit https://winnipegarchitecture.ca/262-portage-avenue/
Exhibit production happens in stages, beginning with research and artifact selection, and moving on through design, purchasing of materials, construction, and artifact installation. In all, 10 museum staff and a volunteer were involved in the creation of the exhibition. Research assistance was also provided by staff at the Jewish Heritage Centre of Canada.
A & M Hurtig Furriers exhibit concept design, by Manitoba Museum Exhibit Designer Anastasiia Mavrina.
This 1922 photograph of a Jewish furrier workshop in Winnipeg provided us with the inspiration for our reproduction in the exhibit. Jewish Heritage Centre of Canada.
A birthday card, photograph, diary, or hand-written note – these little archival pieces can be some of the most treasured fragments of family history. Small and unassuming, paper objects tend to get pushed to the back of drawers where they become crinkled, creased, folded, and stained. The good news is that it does not require an archival conservation lab to preserve these historic heirlooms. With a few simple Conservator tips these pieces can last for many generations to come.
In the same way that Conservators control the environment in a storage vault of the Museum, the location of where to store these collections in your home is the first place to start. It is best to avoid an attic or basement where temperature and humidity can fluctuate, leading to possible mould or insect damage. A combination of a stable environment, away from outdoor walls, off the floor, and away from any heat sources will help the preservation of personal memorabilia.
Image: Senior Conservator Carolyn Sirett repairing a map from WWII that was once folded and taped together.
In addition to an optimal environment, adding a second layer of protection to your archival assets is beneficial. Paper is a porous material, and will inherently absorb anything that surrounds it, this can include odours, colours, and acids. A method Conservators use to keep these deterioration factors at bay includes the use of storage enclosures. When choosing a box or paper folder as a storage enclosure make sure to choose a product that is lignin-free, acid-free, and buffered. Additional tips include removing staples or paper clips that can rust over time, and if choosing to use plastic enclosures make sure they are made of polypropylene or polyethylene.
Poor storage environments can cause staining, tears, and mould on sensitive archival documents.
Examples of archival storage enclosures used to keep collections preserved.
Our personal collections are important in different ways and can spark memories of events or people once cherished. Preserving these physical memories can be done without breaking the bank, and with a few small steps anyone can ensure they last into the future.
Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! Join Rhianna in the Science Gallery as she conducts an experiment to separate hydrogen peroxide to create elephant toothpaste!
Want to try this experiment at home? Follow along.
You’ll need:
Note: This is NOT real toothpaste and should not be consumed by humans or animals.
