March 2012

Moon

1st Quarter                             1^st         10:14 – 02:17

Full                                        8^th        18:39 – 06:05

Last Quarter                          15^th      02:24 – 10:24

New                                       22^nd       05:31 – 18:43

1^st Quarter                              30^th       10:56 – 02:44              

Planets.

Jupiter is well past southing as dusk falls on the 1^st of March, so we have less than half the night to observe it. It sets before 11pm. It will present a disc of 36 arcsec and mag –2.2. By the end of the month it will have shrunk to 34 arcsec and be mag –2.1. It will be due west as dusk falls, about 9pm, at the end of the month and will set at 10:30pm. Pretty much the last of the King of the Planets for some months.

Uranus similarly is on it’s last, being available from dusk, about 6:30pm to setting time, 7:45pm, on the 1^st of the month, both times very close to the western horizon. Within a week it will be catching up with the Sun and will set 60 mins after it. By the 15^th of the month it will be setting 30 mins after it, so will not be safe to seek.
Neptune will be too close to the Sun for observing all month, not angularly, but time wise. It rises and sets at a similar time to the Sun so will be too difficult to find, though not so close to it along the horizon.
This is the best month for Mars in this apparition, it will be 14 arcsec in size and mag –1.2 on the 1^st of the month. It’ll rise at 5:45pm in early dusk and will set at 7:15am after a full night of observation possibility. By the end of the month it will be rising in daylight, 4pm, remembering that we now have daylight saving time in force. It will set at 6am, as dawn colours the sky. It will have passed it’s best now at 13 arcsec and mag –0.7.
Saturn will rise on the 1^st of March at 10pm, at 18 arcsec and mag +0.4. It will set at 8:30am in daylight. At month’s end it will be 19 arcsec and will rise at 9pm and set at 7:30am, also in daylight. So a long observing time for both Mars and Saturn. Saturn will continue but Mars will now recede from Earth and shrink in size.
Venus is again the Evening Star, continuing for this month too in that role, setting after the Sun by 4 hours and more. On the 12^th it will be within 3° of Jupiter in Aries. Venus being the brighter at mag –4.3, its 58% phase obvious, to Jupiter at mag –2.2. Jupiter though, will be the larger at 35 arcsec to Venus at 20 arcsec.
Mercury will be easily seen as it sets on the 1^st of the month 90 mins after the Sun and 4.5° from Uranus.  Uranus and Mercury will pass within 2.5° of each other on the 4^th as they set. By the 17^th , Mercury will be too close to the Sun for safe observation. However it will become a morning star by the 24^th and will rise some 30 mins before the Sun. It will be in dawn twilight and not easy so it’s not really safe to try it.

Meteor Showers.

None of much worth this month.

Comets.

None making the headlines though Garradd is still visible in the telescopes, rushing off in the northern sky, soon to be out of sight.

This is the month that Messier Marathons are usually undertaken. Possible, but very difficult in this country. It involves visually observing all the items on Charles Messier’s list, and needs all night, from dusk to dawn, to catch them all. We once tried, and got to 39 before the Cloud God intervened.

Galaxy time too with Leo, Coma Berenices and Virgo on show with Ursa Major too, all with lots of galaxies to be seen. The early summer targets are also to be seen in the early hours.