March 2023 – What’s Up!

Week of 27th March

  • Astronomical twilight ends at 21:28 BST at the beginning of the week and at 21:41 BST by the end of the week.
  • Venus (mag -4.0) is bright and conspicuous in the evening twilight towards the western horizon at an altitude of around 25°, climbing ever higher through the week. It is followed by Mercury (-1.0) much closer to the horizon at around 8° altitude.
  • The Spring sky is dominated by the constellations of Leo and Virgo, home to a plethora of galaxies. Use a telescope to hunt down ‘faint fuzzies’ such as the Leo Triplet of galaxies and Messier 87, the giant elliptical galaxy Virgo A.
  • The Moon is First Quarter on Wednesday.
  • The Sun currently has 8 active regions and the sunspot number is 105.
  • There are multiple visible evening ISS passes this week as follows:
    Monday: 21:06 (-3.6) W to SE, max 60°
    Tuesday: 20:17 (-3.7) W to ESE, max 75° & 21:54 (-1.9) W to SW, max 23°
    Wednesday: 21:06 (-2.6) W to SSE, max 34°
    Thursday: 20:18 (-3.0) W to SE, max 46° & 21:56 (-1.1) WSW to SW, max 12°
    Friday: 21:07 (-1.5) W to S, max 18°
    Saturday: 20:18 (-1.9) W to SSE, max 25°

Week of 20th March

  • Astronomical twilight ends at 20:13 GMT at the beginning of the week and at 21:25 BST by the end of the week.
  • The Vernal or Spring Equinox occurs at 21:24 on Monday, 20th March. This is when the Sun crosses the celestial equator, heading from south to north. Day and night length are roughly equal at this time and it marks the start of spring in the northern hemisphere.
  • The dwarf planet, Ceres, reaches opposition on Tuesday. It will be hard to spot at mag +7.1 and apparent size of only 0.7 arcseconds, but with a telescope you should be able to identify Ceres in the constellation of Coma Berenices.
  • Daylight Savings Time or British Summer Time (BST) starts on Sunday at 01:00 GMT – don’t forget to move your clocks forward one hour to become 02:00 BST!
  • The Moon is New on Tuesday.
  • The Sun currently has 3 active regions and the sunspot number is 35.
  • There are multiple visible evening ISS passes this week as follows:
    Monday: 19:14 (-3.3) SW to E, max 44° & 20:50 (-2.4) W, max 38°
    Tuesday: 20:03 (-3.9) WSW to E, max 86° & 21:39 (-0.6) W, max 13°
    Wednesday: 19:15 (-3.8) WSW to E, max 73° & 20:52 (-2.7) W, max 45°
    Thursday: 20:04 (-3.8) W to E, max 84° & 21:41 (-0.7) W, max 14°
    Friday: 19:16 (-3.8) W to E, max 87° & 20:53 (-2.8) W, max 45°
    Saturday: 20:05 (-3.9) W to ESE, max 86° & 21:42 (-0.7) W, max 13°
    Sunday: 20:17 (-3.8) W to E, max 86° & 21:54 (-2.6) W to WSW, max 37°

Week of 13th March

  • Astronomical twilight ends at 20:00 GMT at the beginning of the week and at 20:11 GMT by the end of the week.
  • Venus (-4.0) is the brightest object in our evening sky this week. Look to the western horizon just after sunset. With binoculars or a small telescope you might be able to make out its gibbous phase.
  • As the Moon wanes and the sky remains dark, this is the perfect time to hunt for deep sky objects. For example, open clusters abound in the south, with M36, M37 and M38 in Auriga, M35 in Gemini and M44 in Cancer all excellent targets for binoculars or telescope. You could even attempt the full Messier Marathon over the weekend!
  • The Moon is Last Quarter on Wednesday.
  • The Sun currently has 10 active regions and the sunspot number is 126.
  • There are multiple visible evening ISS passes this week as follows:
    Thursday: 19:13 (-1.6) SSE to SE, max 11° & 20:47 (-0.9) SW to SW, max 11°
    Friday: 20:00 (-2.7) SW to S, max 30°
    Saturday: 19:12 (-2.4) SSW to ESE, max 23° & 20:48 (-1.9) WSW to WSW, max 26°
    Sunday: 20:00 (-3.7) WSW to ESE, max 58° & 21:37 (-0.5) W to W, max 10°

Week of 6th March

  • Astronomical twilight ends at 19:47 GMT at the beginning of the week and at 19:58 GMT by the end of the week.
  • Venus (-4.0) has now passed Jupiter (-2.1) and is the higher of the two conspicuous bright objects in the west around sunset. It will continue to rise higher and higher in our sky as it moves towards Greatest Eastern Elongation in June.
  • The opportunity to observe Jupiter is coming to an end as it sinks further west and ever closer to the Sun. By the end of the month it will be too low to observe easily, so look now before it is too late for this apparition. The planet will be back again in the autumn.
  • The Moon is Full on Tuesday – the Worm Moon.
  • The Sun currently has 8 active regions and the sunspot number is 122.
  • There are no visible evening ISS passes this week.

 

 

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