Listen: https://soundcloud.com/astrophiz/astrophiz209marchskyguide
March Moon Phases:
Moon at Perigee March 2
First Quarter: March 7
Full Moon: March 14
Moon at Apogee March18
<<Earth at Equinox March 20>>
Last Quarter March 22
New Moon: March 29
Moon at Perigee again on March 30
Evening Skies:
Mercury is very low in the evening twilight in the West. (binocs recommended but only after sunset) and Mercury will return to morning skies in April and will be quite nice then.
Venus in the early evening twilight is very low in the West (and as a fine crescent in telescopes) … and will disappear from us by the end of the first week of March, and then will re-appear in the East as the ‘Morning Star’ in April.
Jupiter is in the north west all night and best viewed around midnight.
Nice new storms can be picked out in telescopes in the equatorial belt.
Mars can still be seen in the West
Uranus at mag 5.8 is still visible
Saturn returns to evening skies in late March
Highlights:
1 March: Saturn and Mercury near to thin crescent Moon (2° apart for Mercury) very low in evening twilight, will require binoculars.
2 March: Crescent Moon near crescent Venus very low in evening twilight (5°)
6 March: Waxing Moon near Jupiter in evening twilight (6°)
9 March: Waxing Moon near Mars in evening sky (5°), Moon close to Pollux
14 March: Occultation of bright star Beta Virginis around midnight
20 March: Earth at Equinox
21 March: Occultation of bright star Antares just after midnight behind moon
Astrophotography Challenge:
The T Coronae Borealis Nova.
The challenge is to capture a Nova before and after it blows!
This Nova is ‘overdue’ so all eyes are on it!
Ian’s Tip: use 1sec stacks
T Coronae Borealis last brightened in 1946, and astronomers initially predicted it would brighten again by September 2024.
It’s a variable star in Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, a backward-C-shaped constellation east of Boötes.
T Coronae Borealis, dubbed the “Blaze Star” and known to astronomers simply as “T CrB,” is a binary system nestled in the Northern Crown constellation some 3,000 light-years from Earth. The system is comprised of a dense white dwarf – an Earth-sized remnant of a dead star with a mass comparable to that of our Sun – and an ancient red giant slowly being stripped of hydrogen by the relentless gravitational pull of its hungry neighbour.
Ian’s Tangent: Sky literacy, or lack thereof, as exemplified by ‘drone sightings’ in the US and amplified by the Governor of Maryland.
We also discuss easy pathways to develop better sky literacy.
The Astronomy Astrophiz Podcasts 