March 1999

by Steve Stefanik

The month of March will once again host two full moons. Once in a "blue moon" huh? How about once in two "blue moons" within two months? So the next time someone uses this colloquialism to infer that something won’t happen too soon, remind them that actually it happens quite often!

After the spectacular conjunction of Venus and Jupiter last month in the western sky, this month will be a hard act to follow but in astronomy there is always something "up". During this week the planets Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury are involved in a pseudo-conjunction (technically a true conjunction is when two planets come within 1 degree of each other). Look toward the western horizon after the sun sets. Venus will be the first to appear because its the brightest at -4.0 magnitude. Jupiter will become visible next at magnitude -2.1 below Venus. Mercury will appear below Jupiter at -0.7 magnitude and last to appear will be Saturn at -0.5 magnitude higher and to the left of Venus. Jupiter and Mercury are on their way down while Venus is on its way up to meet Saturn. Although they won’t be as close as Venus and Jupiter were last month, they should still put on quite a display. A thin waxing crescent moon will join the show from the18th through the 20th.

The planet Mars is rising by 11:00 p.m. in March. Look for the flaming red -1.0 magnitude planet in the east among the stars of the constellation Virgo as Saturn is setting in the west. It is getting bigger and brighter and its eastward motion is slowing down as we are catching up with it. It will appear stationary as we pull up along side it and be at its biggest and brightest when it reaches opposition next month. Then it will appear to move backward in retrograde (westward) as we pass it in our shorter faster orbit. By June it will once again be moving forward (eastward).

Uranus and Neptune are low on the eastern horizon before the sun rises but will be difficult to see.

Pluto is well placed in the south before dawn but you’ll need a telescope with at least an 8 inch aperature to see it.