March’s night sky continues to give us a spectacular naked-eye view of the planets. Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter continue to be easy to place and watch in the night sky. In the later part of the month, Mercury will be added to that list.

          March’s Full Moon, on the 6^th at 5:14 P.M., has a number of descriptions, but all have something to do with the end of winter such as the Last Snow Moon. This moon was called the “Lenten Moon” by the European settlers, for that season, and was seen as the last full moon of the winter. March also contains the Spring, or Vernal, Equinox. At 12:49 A.M., on the morning of the 20^th, the Earth’s equator will point directly at the Sun. This makes it look like the Sun is standing directly over the Earth’s equator, somewhere around the globe. This moment marks the beginning of the spring season. The word equinox means “equal night”, exactly 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night.

          The view of the four planets is still pretty special in March. Looking to the west after sunset, we see Venus above the horizon. No other planet or star shines this brightly. Mars still shows that ruddy pinkish color, although its size in comparison is shrinking. Saturn is still well up in the dark sky, even a little brighter than usual, since the planet finished a very good opposition just a few months ago. Saturn is still among the stars of the feet of Gemini, the Twins, You still need a telescope to see the rings, but they’re something special!

Jupiter will be at opposition (directly on the other side of the Earth from the Sun) on the night of March 3. This will put it high in the night sky, visible all night just below the constellation of Leo, the Lion. This month will have remarkable view of the moon and two planets together. Mars will be just on one side of a sliver of a waxing crescent moon, with Venus just on the other side, on the night of the 25^th, around 8:00 P.M.

          After the middle of the month, Mercury will join in the parade. It will be lower toward the horizon than Venus, but will still be visible as the sky darkens in the west.

          March doesn’t have any really good meteor showers. The best one, the March Geminid shower, will peak on the night of the 22^nd, and should provide about 40 meteors per hour, originating near Jupiter in the constellation Gemini.

          With the constellation of Orion high in the southern night sky, look for the blur of light that is the Great Orion Nebula. Find the three stars of “Orion’s Belt”. Coming down from the middle of the belt is a faint string of stars and other light that is seen as “The Sword of Orion”. At the end of the sword is a light, not a point of light like a star, but a smudge of light. That is a huge nursery nebula that at this moment is creating new stars.