Dundee Astro - Sky Notes

March 1st      sunrise 7.03 am GMT     sunset5.45 pm    GMT
March 15th   sunrise   6.27 am GMT    sunset   6.15 pm GMT
March 31st    sunrise   6.44 am BST     sunset   7.49 pm   BST

In mid-March, the sky is reasonably dark between 7.30 pm and 5.00 am GMT.

Thursday March 20th is the Spring Equinox when the Sun crosses into the northern half of the sky, and spring officially begins in the northern hemisphere.

British Summer Time (BST) begins on Sunday March 30th; clocks should be put forward by one hour.

The Sun lies in the constellation of Aquarius for the first part of March, and then moves into neighbouring Pisces from Wednesday 12th onwards.

The Moon was New on February 28th, and the very narrow young crescent will become visible low in the west after sunset from Saturday March 1st onwards. On that evening the Moon will lie to the upper right of the planet Mercury and to the lower left of Venus; on the following evening, Sunday 2nd, the crescent Moon will have moved to the upper left of Venus.

First Quarter is on Thursday March 6th, when the half Moon will appear high among the stars of Taurus, to the upper left of Jupiter.

Two nights later, on Saturday 8th, the gibbous Moon will lie immediately to the upper right of Mars in Gemini.

March’s Full Moon falls on the morning of Friday 14th. The Moon rises in the east almost an hour before sunset on Thursday 13th, and is in the south at midnight. The Moon sets again in the west around sunrise on the 14th, but before it does so it passes into the shadow of the Earth and there is a lunar eclipse (see below for more information).

Late on the evening of Sunday 16th, the waning gibbous Moon rises just below the bright star Spica in the constellation of Virgo.

Last Quarter is on Saturday March 22nd. The half-illuminated Moon rises in the early hours of the morning and is very low in the south at dawn.

The waning crescent Moon may be seen low above the south-east horizon for the next couple of mornings before it disappears into the bright dawn twilight.

New Moon is on the morning of Saturday March 29^th, when the Moon will cross the Sun’s disc and there will be a partial solar eclipse - see below for details. The thin young crescent can be spotted low above the western horizon after sunset from the following evening, Sunday 30^th, onwards.

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE MOON

There will be a total lunar eclipse in the early morning of Friday March 14th, as the Full Moon travels through the Earth’s shadow.

In the UK, the Moon sets in the west while the eclipse is in progress and only the partial phase will be easy to observe. The eclipse begins at 5.09 am GMT when the Moon first enters the Earth’s inner shadow, the umbra, and it becomes totally eclipsed at 6.26 am. In Dundee, the Moon sets at 6.36 am, just after the totality begins. The Sun also rises at 6.29 am, so the sky will be very bright by this time.

As the Moon will be very low in the west, a clear horizon in this direction will be required; it is only 11º high when it enters the umbra and just 1° above the horizon at the start of totality.

PARTIAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

On the morning of Saturday 29th March there is a partial eclipse of the Sun, visible across the UK. The further north-west you are, the greater the area of the Sun that will be covered by the Moon. At Dundee, the eclipse begins at 10.09 am and ends at 12.08 am; maximum is at 11.08 am when 40% of the Sun’s disc will be hidden by the Moon, and the Sun will be 35° high in the south-south-east.

Remember to observe the eclipse safely – never look at the Sun directly, even with the naked eye, without the protection of a proper solar filter.

Mercury is at greatest elongation from the Sun on March 8th, the best evening appearance of the planet this year. As the month opens, Mercury is setting in the west over an hour-and-a-half after the Sun, and for several days on either side the 8th it will be setting around two hours after sunset and will be visible as a bright magnitude -0.5 ‘star’ over 10° above the western horizon as the sky gets dark.

Venus drops noticeably lower in the west during March evenings as it heads towards inferior conjunction on Sunday 23rd, when its orbit takes it between the Earth and the Sun and into the morning sky. However, at this conjunction Venus actually passes over 8° above the Sun, which produces the unusual effect of the planet being visible both after sunset and before sunrise for several consecutive days ahead of conjunction. Between March 15th and 22nd, it may be possible with a clear horizon to spot Venus low in the west after sunset and again very low in the east before sunrise the following morning. By the end of the month, Venus will be fully into the morning sky, rising over an hour ahead of the Sun and shining at magnitude -4.2 low in the dawn sky.

Mars is high in the south as the sky grows dark, lying out to the right of the bright stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini at the start of the month. During March it resumes its eastwards prograde movement against the stars, ending the month to the lower right of Pollux, fading as it does so from magnitude -0.3 to 0.4.

Jupiter continues to shine brightly at magnitude -2.2 high in the south-west on March evenings, among the stars of Taurus.

Saturn is at conjunction on the far side of the Sun on March 12th and won’t be visible this month.

Uranus, at magnitude 5.8, moves from Aries into Taurus this month and lies about 8º to the south-west of the Pleiades star cluster.

Neptune is in conjunction with the Sun on March 19th and won’t be visible.

March is a month of changes in the sky; the winter constellations have slipped into the south-west, and the spring stars are now climbing higher in the south-east.

The hourglass outline of Orion the Hunter is dipping lower in the evenings, though you can still follow the line of his belt to the left towards Sirius, the Dog Star. Sirius appears to sparkle even more strongly as it approaches the horizon. To the upper right of Orion is the V-shaped head of Taurus the Bull and the star cluster of the Pleiades or Seven Sisters.

High above Orion is the bright star Capella, in the constellation of Auriga, and also the twin stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux. Between Gemini and Sirius, to the left of Orion, is Procyon, the Little Dog Star.

Lower in the north-west are the stars of Perseus, the ‘W’ of Cassiopeia, and the faint outline of Cepheus. Just above the northern horizon are the bright stars Vega and Deneb, which rise into the north-east in the early hours of the morning.

The seven stars of the Plough are almost overhead, with the two ‘pointer’ stars showing the way to the Pole Star; the curve of the Plough’s handle leads down to the bright red giant star Arcturus in the east. Arcturus sits at the base of the kite-shaped constellation of Boötes the Herdsman. To the north-east of Boötes is the distinctive semi-circle of stars representing Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown.

High in the south-east is the distinctive shape of Leo the Lion, its head marked by the curve of stars known as the ‘Sickle’ with the star Regulus at the bottom. To the lower right of Regulus is a bright yellow star, Alphard, brightest star in the long and straggling constellation of Hydra, the many-headed serpent of mythology. Between Leo and Boötes, nearer the horizon, are the stars of the zodiacal constellation Virgo which form the pattern of a large and distorted ‘Y’.

The Milky Way appears as a faint band of light stretching from Deneb in the north, through Cassiopeia, Perseus and Auriga, into the south-west past Gemini and Orion. As we move into spring, the Milky Way sinks lower towards the west and becomes less prominent.