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Swan song for the great winter constellations

We have many special celestial happenings this month, but even without them March is fantastic for stargazing! It’s not as cold as January and February overall, but the same great winter constellations are still available and ready to enjoy!

The vernal equinox, the astronomical beginning of spring, takes place on March 19 or 20, depending on where you are on the Earth. Days and nights are both about 12 hours each. From now until late June in the Northern Hemisphere, the days will grow longer as the sun reaches higher and higher in the sky.

Despite spring beginning, the marvelous constellations of winter will put on a great show all month, dominating the Marshall early evening south-southwest heavens. Even so, they’re starting their long goodbye. Majestic Orion is the ringmaster of the winter constellations surrounded by his posse of other bright constellations. They include Taurus the Bull, Auriga the Charioteer, Orion’s hunting dogs Canis Major and Minor, and Gemini the Twins.

The three bright stars in a row that make up Orion’s belt jump out at you. Below his belt are three fainter stars in a row that outline the hunter’s sword. The middle star is the famous Orion nebula appears as a fuzzy star to the naked eye. It’s a superb telescope target, even if you have a small scope. You’re witnessing a giant cloud of excited hydrogen gas with stars gravitationally forming within it. To travel there would require a journey over 1,500 light-years. Just one light-year equals nearly 6 trillion miles! Using a small telescope, you can see a tight cluster of four stars within the Orion nebula that were born out of it. They’re called the Trapezium stars because they’re arranged in a tight trapezoid pattern.

In the northern sky, the Big Dipper is standing up on its handle. The fainter Little Dipper is off to the left hanging by its handle. The brightest star, Polaris, otherwise known as the North Star, shines at the end of the Little Dipper’s handle. Polaris shines directly above the Earth’s terrestrial North Pole, so all of the stars in the northern hemisphere appear to circle the North Star every 24 hours in response to the Earth’s rotation.

In the early evening eastern sky the first of the major spring constellations, Leo the Lion, is on the rise. Look for a distinct backward question mark of stars that outline the chest and head of a mighty beast. At the bottom of the question mark is Regulus, a moderately bright star that marks the heart of Leo. As March continues, Leo will be higher and higher in the sky at the start of the evening as the stars of Orion and his gang start lower and lower in the west. It looks as if the mighty lion is chasing Orion and his gang out of the night sky. This is due to the Earth’s orbit of the sun. The nighttime side of the Earth is gradually turning away from the direction of space where Orion and company are and more toward the not so vibrant constellations of spring. Enjoy the winter constellations while we still have them!

The full moon this month is on March 9 and leading up to that date there will be much moonlight in the evening sky, making it tough for hardcore stargazing. The full moon this month is also considered a “Supermoon” since it’s physically a little closer to Earth than average, making it slightly larger and brighter.

The planet Venus still dominates the early evening western sky and is by far the brightest star-like object seen in the night sky this month. On March 24, it reaches its highest evening altitude. Because of this Venus stays in the evening sky for nearly four hours before it slips below the horizon. Venus is so bright not only because it’s so close to the Earth this month, but also because of its very reflective cloud cover bouncing a lot of sunlight our way.

Since Venus is completely cloud covered, the only thing that makes Venus worth checking out with a telescope is that just like our moon, it goes through phases. This month it resembles a near first quarter (half-moon). Both Venus and Mercury go through phase shape changes like our moon because their orbits around the sun lay within Earth’s orbit. This results in a gradual, continual change in the sun angle between the Earth, sun, and Venus.

You will want to use your telescope or even a pair of binoculars on Sunday evening, March 8. That’s when Venus and the distant planet Uranus will be nearly in the same line of sight. With binocular or a small telescope you should easily spot Uranus. It will be the next brightest star-like object in the sky with a bit of a greenish tinge, less than three degrees to the upper right of Venus. That’s about the width of three of your fingers held together at arm’s length. Uranus is just over 1.9 billion miles away. The light from Uranus takes nearly three hours to reach Earth this month!

If you’re an early riser you get to see four planets this month. They’ll be crowded together in the early morning southeastern sky just before morning twilight. During the first half of March, you’ll see three of them near the horizon in a tight diagonal parade line. From lower left to upper right, they are Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. Jupiter is by far the brightest of the three.

In the latter half of March, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars will draw even closer together in the southeast sky with Mercury joining them to the lower left. It’s going to turn into quite a show. On March 18, the waning crescent moon joins the fray. The moon, Mars, and Jupiter will form an exceptionally tight triangle in a very close celestial conjunction. The next morning, March 19, a thinner waning crescent moon will be parked just to the lower left of Saturn. On March 20, Mars and Jupiter will pass within one degree of each other. Now that’s a celestial hugging!

On March 21, Mercury will be joined by an extremely faint and thin waning crescent moon just below and to the right of the planet named after the messenger of the gods.

Finally, on Tuesday morning, March 31, Mars and Saturn will pass within a degree of each other in the very low morning southeast sky.

There’s a lot going on this month!!!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

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