March Sky
Feature: Man-made space junk
Space junk: Proton rocket re-entering our Earth's upper atmosphere.
The Planets
Mercury will be unobservable until later this month. On the 14th the planet passes through superior conjunction. As we approach the end of the month you'll be able to see Mercury after the Sun has set low down in the western sky; on the 26th Mercury lies below and to the right of Venus and then on the 29th Mercury and Venus are in conjunction.
Venus ? as March progresses Venus pulls away from the Sun and once again becomes visible in the western evening twilight sky. In addition to its encounters with Mercury Venus sits below the crescent Moon on the 17th.
Mars is high in the sky throughout this month from evening until the early hours of the morning as it sinks down westward in the constellation of Cancer. The planet has been moving retrograde but on the 11th it becomes stationary before it once again moves against the backdrop of star studded deep-space. Mars dims from magnitude -0.6 to +0.2. On the 31st Mars is at aphelion ? its greatest distance from the Sun ? 249.2 million kilometers (154.8 million miles).
Jupiter we lost Jupiter to its conjunction with the Sun at the end of February, sadly we will have to wait until May until we see this gas giant again.
Saturn becomes the dominant planet throughout the night time sky this month as it drifts retrograde in the constellation of Virgo at mag +0.6. The rings have closed to about 3°. Saturn is at opposition to the Earth on the 22nd at a distance of 1,272 million kilometers that's 790 million miles in old money!
Meteors
Again we have no showers this month, if you see any it will be a sporadic one or a piece of man-made space junk re-entering our Earth's upper atmosphere.
Moon-Watch
New Moon: 15th March Full Moon: 30th March
The Moon makes a close pass to the star Antares on the morning of the 7th. Then on the morning of the 9th the star Kaus Borealis in Sagittarius will be occulted by the Moon, beginning just after 05:00 UT.
See the crescent Moon 'hanging' above Venus in the evening twilight sky of the 17th.
The Pleiades open cluster 'glitter' above the 5 day old crescent Moon in the western evening sky of the 20th.
The Moon and Mars are in Cancer on the 25th.
Sun
Equinox: 20 th
Summer time begins on the 28th
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