RASC Kingston Centre

compiled by Rick Wagner

01 Mar - bright Mars passes several degrees south of the Pleiades star cluster. Mars makes a very photogenic pass between the Pleiades and the Hyades clusters over the ~10 days. Perfect chance to sketch the motion for the Orbital Motion requirement of the Explore the Universe certificate.

 01-15 Mar - Zodiacal light is visible in the west towards the end of evening twilight as a faint and hazy triangular pillar of light extending upwards from the western horizon towards the Pleiades.

 04 Mar - asteroid 4 Vesta at opposition in the hind-quarters of Leo the lion. At magnitude 6.0 it might be barely visible to the naked eye for the more eagle-eyed of us. Vesta is the only minor planet which is ever visible to the naked eye for most people.

 04 Mar - Algol at minimum about 20:10

 05 Mar - Mercury (mag 0) is less than a degree north of Jupiter (mag -2) very low in the ESE sky starting about 45 minutes before sunrise. At the same time all 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter will be in a line on the west side of the planet - visible in carefully held binoculars and small telescopes. Saturn (mag 1) is 9 degrees to the upper right of Jupiter.

 06 Mar - Last quarter Moon

 06 Mar - Mercury at greatest elongation west low in the eastern sky in morning twilight

 09-11 Mar - crescent Moon passes about 4d south of Saturn then Jupiter and then Mercury low in the eastern sky in morning twilight

 13 Mar - New Moon

 13 Mar - William Herschel discovered Uranus 240 yrs ago today - take your binoculars or telescope out to look at it after evening twilight and celebrate the anniversary!

 14 Mar - 0200 Daylight saving time begins, clocks spring ahead

 18 Mar - Mars and the Moon are near the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters.

 20 Mar - 13:37EDT vernal equinox - the Sun is overhead at the equator and we get (roughly) equal hours of daytime and nighttime.

 21 Mar - First quarter Moon

 23 Mar - Mars is 7d north of Aldebaran - compare their colours and brightnesses!

 27 Mar - 20:30-21:30 Earth Hour - turn off your lights and devices and get out to look at the sky!

 28 Mar - Full Moon

 Algol minima?