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We’re premiering a new feature,
Don’t just talk about the stars – Go outside and look at them!
The month of March includes four bright planets, five moon & planet conjunctions, and a whole collection of open star clusters!
Beginning with the planets … Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Saturn are all visible this month! Two of them grace the evening sky, while the other two pair together at sunset.
Starting with the sunset horizon, you’ll find our brightest planet, Venus, basking in the glow of the setting sun early in the month, and lingering for 30mins to an hour after dark by month’s end. You can’t miss Venus, shining like a beacon on the west horizon – so bright it’s often mistaken for aircraft and even occasionally reported as a UFO.
Mercury joins the sunset horizon around the 20th. Like Venus earlier in the month, Mercury starts out on the heels of the setting sun, but inches higher, and closer to Venus, through month’s end.
Once the sun sets, turn to your east horizon where you’ll find Mars as that bright red “star” in Cancer, just beneath the twins of Gemini – or east of Orion, if you’re more familiar with that constellation. A closer look – with binoculars is best – will reveal the Beehive star cluster nearby. Keep an eye on this pair through the month – by mid-April (next month,) Mars will appear to slip right past the cluster.
