March this year is an exciting month for stargazers. All five planets known to the ancient astronomers are visible in the night sky. Our ancestors would have been awed at the sight of so many "wandering gods", as the planets were called, appearing at one time. Luckily, we know better now and don't fear such gatherings. March also brings the Spring equinox, and the chance to do a "Messier Marathon".
Venus once again dominates the early evening sky. Venus shines at magnitude -4.3. (Magnitude is the degree of brightness of a celestial object; a negative number means that an object is brighter.) At a very dark site this month, where you have no light pollution, Venus will actually be bright enough to cast a shadow! Venus will also appear to grow larger this month as it moves closer to Earth. The distance between us shrinks from 86 million miles to 65 million miles. Watch for a young crescent Moon to the left of Venus on March 24.
Mercury can be found in the western sky from mid-to-late March. Look for it around 30 minutes after sunset. The planet resembles a small red star. Mercury is too small to show any details, even in a good-sized telescope.
Mars can still be seen in the evening sky, but it is far from the impressive sight it was last summer and fall. By the end of the month, Mars will appear to be very close to Venus, even though the planets are separated by millions of miles. Look for Mars to approach the Pleiades star cluster on the 19th; Mars will pass 3 degrees south of the cluster. The disk of Mars is now so small that no good surface details can be seen. To see what is happening on Mars, however, you can go to the NASA website for the Martian Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The website is at: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/ . Both rovers have been sending back stunning pictures of the surface of Mars, as well as much interesting information on the structure of the Red Planet.
Saturn is still a lovely object in binoculars or a telescope. Saturn is visible in the east-northeastern sky, in the constellation Gemini. If you have access to a telescope, you should be able to see the shadow of Saturn on its planet's rings.
Jupiter reaches opposition on March 3/4. (Opposition is when a planet is opposite the Sun in the sky and is visible all night long.) Jupiter is an interesting object in binoculars since you can see four of its moons and watch them change position from night to night. Through a telescope, you can observe the different colored cloud bands on the planet, as well as see the famous Great Red Spot. The Great Red Spot is a whirling storm on Jupiter. The surface area of this storm is greater than the size of the Earth!
