{"id":509,"date":"2020-03-01T03:29:48","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T03:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=509"},"modified":"2020-10-01T03:43:30","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T03:43:30","slug":"march-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/march-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"March 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Venus\ncontinues its reign as the bright object of the evening sky. At the\nstart of the month, it’s by the eastern fish of Pisces. Look westerly\nand see Pegasus to the right and Cetus to the left. Venus moves\neastward among the starry background, passing Uranus on the 7th<\/sup>.\nFor the next two weeks, Venus moves alongside the stars of Aries.\nIt’s heading into Taurus, on track for a visit with the Pleiades on\nApril 3. Get ready and hope for clear weather for a good view that\nevening. The moon will pass Venus on the 28th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mars,\nJupiter, and Saturn are morning objects. They have collected in\nSagittarius and are lined up next to it at the start of March. Each\nis moving eastward at a different rate. Mars is moving fastest and\ncatches up to Jupiter right about when the moon passes by them on the\n18th<\/sup>.\nBy the 21st<\/sup>,\nMars has passed Jupiter and is on its way to a rendezvous with Saturn\nat the end of March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There’s\nanother object out there among this trio. The average backyard\nastronomer can’t see it and there’s still some controversy about\nwhether it should be included among the planets. But Pluto is among.\nIt’s very close to Mars on the 23rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You\nmay be able to see Mercury in the second part of March. It’s at\ngreatest elongation in the morning sky on the 24th<\/sup>.\nFollow the rough line Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn make almost all the\nway to the horizon a little before sunrise. Binoculars will help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of this\nmonth’s notable conjunctions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2nd<\/sup>\n\u2013 Moon and Aldebaran, 3.2\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Moon and Regulus, 3.6\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Venus and Uranus, 2.2\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Moon and Mars, 0.7\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18th<\/sup>\n– Moon and Jupiter, 1.5\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19th- Moon and\nSaturn, 2.1\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Mars and Jupiter, 0.7\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21st<\/sup>\n\u2013 Moon and Mercury, 3.4\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

23rd<\/sup>\n\u2013 Mars and Pluto, close to 0\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

28th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Moon and Venus, 6.5\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

29th<\/sup>\n\u2013 Moon and Aldebaran, 3.5\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

31st<\/sup>\n\u2013 Mars and Saturn, 0.9\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nMarch equinox is on the 20th<\/sup>\nat 03:50 UT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moon\nphases this month: first quarter on the 2nd<\/sup>,\nfull on the 9th<\/sup>,\nlast quarter on the 16th<\/sup>,\nnew on the 24th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon’s declinations this month: northern lunistice at 23.4\u00b0 on the\n5th<\/sup>,\non the equator going south on the 11th<\/sup>,\nsouthern lunistice at 23.5\u00b0 on the 17th<\/sup>,\nand crossing the equator going north on the 25th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon’s orbital extremes this month: perigee at 357,100 km on the 10th<\/sup>\nand apogee at 406,800 km on the 24th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venus continues its reign as the bright object of the evening sky. At the start of the month, it’s by the eastern fish of Pisces. Look westerly and see Pegasus to the right and Cetus to the left. Venus moves eastward among the starry background, passing Uranus on the 7th. For the next two weeks, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-59"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":514,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions\/514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}