Transient Events That Can Give Us a Good Enough Reason to Get Outside and Do a Little Observing
All month: Mercury begins the month barely hanging on in the evening sky: on March 1 it sets 57 minutes after the Sun and is less than 5° above the horizon a half hour after sunset, rapidly becoming undetectable as it approaches inferior conjunction on March 7. It emerges as a morning star the third week of March, but springtime’s relatively flat morning ecliptic keeps it low in the sky, a difficult target dancing cheek-to-cheek with Mars in the rising Sun’s glare. Meanwhile, Venus advances into the evening sky, setting an hour after the Sun when March begins and more than 90 minutes after sunset by month’s end, blazing at mag -3.9 as its nearly-full disk swells from 10 to 10½ arcseconds. Neptune is next to set, its 2 arcsecond disk glowing feebly at mag 8.0 as it slips below the horizon before 9:20 pm on March 1, followed minutes later by mag +1.0 Saturn. They both become lost in the solar glare before the first week of March ends, with Neptune heading for conjunction on March 22 and Saturn on March 25. Uranus and Jupiter share evening prime time. Uranus displays a 3½ arcsecond disk shining at mag 5.8. It sets shortly after midnight on March 1, but by 11:15 pm on March 31, and spends the month just south of The Pleiades (M45). Jupiter is up until almost 4 am as March begins and 3 am as it ends, fading from mag -2.4 to -2.2 while its disk shrinks from 43 to 39 arcseconds. Among the asteroids, 20 Massalia reaches opposition on March 21 at mag 9.0, while 7 Iris continues its trek below the belly of Leo following its own opposition on Feb 27. This month’s charts will lead you to both asteroids, and to Uranus.
March 2: stay up really late tonight (or get up really early tomorrow morning) for the last total eclipse of the Moon visible from the Americas until June 2029. The Moon enters Earth’s penumbra at 2:43 am CST. It crosses into the umbra at 3:49 am when the Moon is 27° above the western horizon. Earth’s shadow will bite into the Moon starting at its upper left edge. Lunar totality extends from 5:03 to 6:02 am: the Moon will be 14° above the horizon when totality begins, but just 3½° up when it ends. Greatest eclipse comes at 5:33 am (Moon elevation 8½°). Part of the Moon is still within the umbra when sunrise arrives at 6:22 am, so a partial selenelion is possible. The Moon will be below the horizon and invisible to us when it exits the umbra.
March 5: if you’re lucky enough to be at a good dark site during the next two weeks, look for the zodiacal light:
a tall, subtly illuminated triangle rising at an angle from the western horizon into the early evening sky as sunlight bounces off scattered debris strewn across the ecliptic by millennia of passing comets and colliding asteroids – a scaled-up version of the cloud of dust revealed by a shaft of sunlight in a disused room. But no matter where you are tonight, you can watch Europa put on a show: it’s already transiting Jupiter at sunset, reaching the end of its trek at 8:03 pm CST. Its shadow makes the same journey from 7:26 to 10:16 pm.
March 7: find a pair of binoculars and a place with an unobstructed view of the western horizon to spot mag +1.0 Saturn riding on the shoulder of Venus. At 6:19 pm CST (a half hour after sunset), the pair will be 7½° up, almost exactly above the spot where the Sun went down, with the ringed planet barely 1° to the upper left of its bright mag -3.9 companion. But be quick – Venus sets at 6:54 pm, and Saturn follows six minutes later.
March 8: Saturn and Venus reprise their race to the horizon tonight, but this time it’s Saturn in the lead, 1° below left of Venus. The pair will be about as far above the horizon as they were yesterday, but the time will be different because Daylight Savings Time began this morning: look for them around 7:20 pm CDT. Then watch Io transit Jupiter until 8:43 pm, while its shadow walks across Jove’s face like a pesky fly from 7:35 to 9:51 pm.
March 10: night owls and early risers get a treat as the last-quarter Moon rises shortly before 2 am CDT just 1½° from ruddy mag +0.9 Antares (Alpha [] Scorpii). Binoculars and the slowly brightening sky will both help you see the color contrast between the two orbs, until morning twilight erases the scene around 6:45 am.
March 12: Jupiter’s watery moon Europa ambles across the disk of the planet from 8:41 to 11:30 pm CDT, followed by its shadow from 11:02 pm to 1:52 am.
March 15: Io crosses Jupiter from 8:19 to 10:34 pm CDT, followed by its shadow from 9:30 to 11:47 pm. Meanwhile, Ganymede plays hide-and seek, popping out from behind Jove’s trailing edge at 9:17 pm, then disappearing into the planet’s shadow at 10:51 pm, and eventually reappearing there at 2:16 am.
March 19: new Moon arrived yesterday at 8:23 pm CDT, so at 7:32 pm tonight (a half hour after sunset) it will be a challenging target: 23 hours old, barely 1% illuminated, and 6° above the horizon – but 7° below right of the unmistakable marker of mag -3.9 Venus. Center on Venus, scan 4° down and 5° right, and you’ll see it.
March 20: another long winter wraps up as the vernal equinox arrives at 9:46 am CDT, bringing Spring and all its hopeful promises. Celebrate by catching the delicate crescent of a two-day-old Moon, 5% illuminated and perched 8½° above and slightly to the right of the bright beacon of Venus during evening twilight. At 7:33 pm CDT (a half hour after sunset), the mag -3.9 planet will be 10½° above the horizon, almost directly above the spot where the Sun went down, with the slender Moon at 19° elevation. The Moon won’t set until 9:19 pm, but finding it will be more difficult after Venus slips below Earth’s lid at 8:25 pm.
March 22: it’s a celestial beauty pageant as a gorgeous crescent Moon, 20% illuminated, forms a 5½° triangle with pretty powder blue Uranus and The Pleiades (M45), the sky’s most stunning open cluster. The triangle shrinks as the night goes on, and just barely fits into a 5° field before the trio set, shortly before midnight. If you can tear your gaze away from that spectacle, check out Jupiter, whose moon Ganymede will slowly disappear behind the planet’s edge over several minutes beginning at 9:43 pm CDT – then its innermost moon Io will transit Jupiter’s face from 10:11 pm to 12:27 am, followed by its shadow from 11:26 pm to 1:42 am.
March 25: gallant Jupiter squires the first quarter Moon across the sky tonight, as they’re furtively followed by the twins Castor and Pollux, and menacingly surrounded by the other stars of the Winter Hexagon. Along the way, Jove’s outermost moon Callisto – which usually passes above or below Jupiter’s disk when seen from our perch in space – will instead slip behind the planet at 9:30 pm CDT, as if to literally guard its back.
March 26: at 11:06 pm CDT, the gibbous Moon seems to take a step backwards as mag 3.6 star Kappa () Geminorum disappears behind its dark limb. The star peeks out from the other side an hour later, but you probably won’t be able to see that happen against the brightness of the Moon’s illuminated edge.
March 29: the almost-full Moon chases mag 1.4 Regulus (Alpha [] Leonis) across the sky tonight, like an overweight cop in a foot pursuit. Only 3° separate them as twilight fades, but the gap widens as the chase goes on, reaching 6° before the pair set around 5:30 am CDT and nimble Regulus avoids arrest (or occultation).
Rick Gering / March 2026