What's Up in SW FL Skies: March Skies: Lunar Eclipse, Next Phase of Planetary Lineup, Constellations this month

Waxing crescent Moon passes between Mercury and Venus and farewell to Saturn Mar 1, 2025

Moon Phases March 2025 (Eastern Time)

1st Quarter Full (& eclipse!) 3rd Quarter New

6 14 22 29

NOTE: Daylight Savings Time Stars Sunday, March 9th

Meteors: As the American Meteor Society points out: "March is the slowest month of the year for meteor activity. No major annual showers are active and only a few very weak minor showers produce activity this month. The sporadic rates are also near their annual minimum so there is not much to look forward to this month except for the evening fireballs that seem to peak this time of year." So if you see one, you're lucky!

Planets: Sunset, Night and Dawn

The brightest pointlike feature in our early evening sky is not a star, it's still the brilliant planet Venus! Our "Morning star/Evening star which is really a planet" dominates the early evening southwestern sky for the first half of March, medium-low to low in the west just after sunset. The waxing crescent Moon will make a lovely image passing Venus just after sunset on March 1. Although Venus is still very bright, it's getting a bit dimmer and significantly closer to the horizon each evening, so by the 19th it will be barely above the western horizon and quite hard to see against the sunset's glare: after that, you'll need to wait for it to become a "morning star which is really a planet," which it will, beautifully, next to the waning crescent moon in the east just before dawn on the 28th!

Mercury is in the western evening sky at the beginning of March, setting 1.5 hours after the Sun on 1 March, and Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation – its furthest point from the Sun – on March 8, making this the best time to see it. It's also pleasingly close to brilliant Venus in the western sky after sunset from the 8th through the 13th -- Mercury is the one to the left, and not quite as bright as Venus! Around the middle of March, Mercury starts to get lost in the sunset glare, even though it's higher above our horizon than brighter Venus. Mercury will pass inferior conjunction – when it sits right between Earth and the Sun, so is invisible to us – on March 24th, and by the end of March, Mercury will be a morning planet, although it won't really be far enough from the Sun in our sky to see easily until early April.

After the first few days of March, when it will be faint against the sunset and very low in the West, due to Earth's orbital motion the planet Saturn is going to be just too close to the Sun in our sky to see for the rest of the month, but then it will re-emerge as a predawn planet in April.

At the start of the month, Jupiter will be bright and high in the south-southwestern sky just after sunset and Mars will be high and bright above the southern horizon -- but just look "up" -- they are as close together as they are going to get at the start of the month, so see if you can spot the color difference between cream-colored Jupiter and "butterscotch" Mars, early in March!

This Month on "Pi Day" see "A Blood Moon" aka A Lunar Eclipse

After 1 a.m. the night of March 13th -14th (Thursday night late) a lunar total eclipse, during which the full Moon will gradually transition to a dull red color and then just as gradually will transition

A total lunar eclipse will occur at 2:26 am EDT on March 14

back to full and bright, will grace our southern sky. It begins at 1:09 a.m. EDT on March 14, with "totality" (completely dull red) lasting from 2:26 a.m. to 3:32 a.m. EDT. The red is often called "the light of a million sunsets," as the sunlight from "behind" Earth (from the Moon's point of view) is refracted around the edge of the Earth by our atmosphere - that's why a lunar eclipse is not black, but dull red. By the way, "pi day," which math-y types celebrate a bit every year, is 3.14 -- in honor of the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of a circle! Have some pie, if you like, to celebrate!

Stars this month

At the start of March, facing west and looking from the horizon to high overhead after sunset, you will see first brilliant Venus and the spark of Mercury (near a thin crescent moon on 3/1 and 3/2), then higher up the bright stars of winter, with the constellations Taurus (with the "teensy dipper shape" of the Pleiades star cluster and the brilliant red giant star Aldebaran and temporary visitor planet Jupiter), directly above it the bright planet Mars visiting the constellation Gemini (check for Castor and Pollux, two stars close together in brightness) then to the left Orion (with bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel) followed by Orion's two famous hunting dogs, the bright "dog stars," Sirius (in Canis Major) and Procyon (in Canis Minor), plus Castor and Pollux in Gemini, and Capella - the bright star in Auriga. Six bright winter stars surround Betelgeuse [pronounced BEEtle-juice] in what is nicknamed the Winter Hexagon. These will all be high in the sky by sunset at the start of March - and 4 minutes earlier each night that passes! But they are better seen a little later, in a slightly darker sky.

Note that if you are a person with a totally flat southern horizon view, like looking straight off the beach at Sanibel, all four stars of the Southern Cross will clear the horizon briefly a bit after 2 am on March 1st and 4 minutes earlier each day, then be aware that Daylight Savings Time starts on 3/9, so about an HOUR earlier by month's end!

Jupiter, with redder Mars above it, high up in March after sunset. Image courtesy The Stellarium Project www.stellarium.org

Planetarium

Each day we are open, we show two different planetarium shows, and odd day shows are different from even-day shows, so there are four different shows each month that alternate. Schedule and show descriptions can be accessed by clicking on "Simple Calendar" when you follow our Events link. On Sundays (the "Science Sundays" extra show), there's an additional "audience choice" show at 3:15, and typically on the First Sunday of each month we have a Sensory Sunday special show at 10:30 am, and most months we also have a Planetarium Premiere on the third Wednesday at 7 pm, so you have the potential to see ten different shows in the course of the month. The whole nature center, planetarium, butterfly aviary, raptor aviary and trails complex is open six days per week, closed Mondays. Often a staff member or volunteer will present night sky talks along with our recorded shows: ask if you want a special one! Hoping to see you soon at the Center!

-- Heather Preston, Planetarium Director Emerita