Mercury, returns to the dawn twilight sky but it is too low
to be easily observable. It is below the ecliptic and the morning ecliptic
is itself low at this tile of the Month. It reaches greatest Western
Elongation of 28 degrees on the 22nd of March.
Venus, the brilliant object in our South Western evening sky
is hard to miss now, becoming more and more prominent and higher each
evening. It shall remain visible until mid summer. See Kevin's recent
picture in the planetary
gallery.
Outer Planets
Mars, still a morning object, it rises just an hour and a half
before the Sun and it doesn't gain on the earlier rising of Sun until
May.
Jupiter, rises now at 02:30 now and by 01:00UT by next meeting.
Saturn, is nice and high in the evening sky now.
Uranus, is too close to the Sun now following its conjunction
on the 6th.
Neptune, returns to the morning sky.
Sun
Sunset today, 13th March, was 18:40 UT and sunrise tomorrow is at
7:00 UT
By the next meeting in Mid April we will be on British Summer time (25th
of March)
Sunset will not be until 20:30 with astronomical twilight not until
22:30!
Partial solar eclipse for eastern Asia on the 19th.
Equinox on the 21st March
Moon’s Phases
Full Moon was on the 3rd and will be on the 2nd of April,
Last Quarter Moon was on the 12th of March
New Moon on St. Patrick’s day, the 17th
1st Quarter Moon on the 24th
Occultation's and parings
Beginning at 3:30am on the 30th of March Regulus in Leo is occluded
by the moon low in the west.
Mars and Neptune are within a degree of each other on the 26th. Both
are low in the East at 5:30 in dawn light.
Messier Marathon time
For a period of about 6 weeks from March to mid April we get an opportunity
to see the maximum number of Messier objects in a single night. Given
perfect conditions we could theoretically see nearly 106 of the 109
messier objects from our latitude. We intend to give it a go on the
Sunday night of the 18th of March from Banna, weather permitting. Anyone
is welcome to join us for some or all of the night.
