{"id":621,"date":"2021-02-28T18:30:32","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T18:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=621"},"modified":"2021-02-28T19:01:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T19:01:50","slug":"march-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/march-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"March 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\nCetus, Pisces, and Pegasus are setting as night sets in. Gemini,\nTaurus, and Orion are high at sunset. Leo is an all night\nconstellation. Mars is in Taurus when March begins. It passes close\nto the Pleiades in the first week. Around the 15th<\/sup> through\n19th<\/sup>, the red planet passes through a set of stars sharing\nthe name Alkalbain. The moon is near on the 19th<\/sup>. By the\nend of March as Taurus is lower in the west, Mars is above the Hyades\nV with orange Aldebaran and below Elnath in Auriga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\nLibra rises around local midnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mercury,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\nA cluster of planets rises shortly before the sun. Saturn is highest,\nMercury is next, and Jupiter is below it when the month starts.\nMercury is moving toward Jupiter and passes it on the 4th<\/sup>\nand 5th<\/sup>. The messenger planet is at greatest elongation on\nthe 6th<\/sup>, 27.3\u00b0 west of the sun. A waning crescent moon is\nin the neighborhood on the 9th<\/sup> and 10th<\/sup>. For\nnorthern hemisphere viewers, Saturn and Jupiter stay barely above the\nsolar glare as Mercury disappears into it in the second half of\nMarch. In the southern hemisphere, sky watchers will still see the\nmessenger planet above a clear horizon in the morning at the end of\nthe month. From 25\u00b0 south, Mercury rises 1 hour, 12 minutes before\nthe sun nearly above it on the 31st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mercury,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\nVenus is close to the sun all month. There are no places on Earth\nthat get a good view of it this month. Venus is technically a morning\nobject until the 26th<\/sup> when it’s at superior conjunction\nand changes to evening status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe equinox is on the 20th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nMercury is at aphelion on the 14th<\/sup>. It’s 0.467\nastronomical units from the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\nThe asteroid Vesta is at opposition on March 4th<\/sup>. It’s 1.3\nastronomical units from the earth. It’s visible in Leo near the star\nChertan. Vesta is the brightest of the asteroids, but still is at the\nlimit of what the human eye can see unaided. On the 4th<\/sup>,\nthe moon rises in late evening, giving a few hours to see Vesta\nwithout interference from moonlight. You’ll see it easier as the moon\nrises later night after night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Vesta, NASA images<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\nThe moon begins the month on the equator going south. Last quarter is\non the 6th<\/sup>. Southern lunistice is on the 7th<\/sup> at\n25.2\u00b0. New moon is on the 13th<\/sup> and the moon goes north of\nthe equator on the 14th<\/sup>. First quarter is on the 21st<\/sup>.\nNorthern lunistice is on the 22nd<\/sup> at 25.3\u00b0. The moon is\nfull and on the equator going south on the 28th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nLunar perigee is on the 2nd<\/sup> at 365,500 km. Apogee is on\nthe 18th<\/sup> at 405,300 km. A second perigee occurs on the\n30th<\/sup> at 360,200 km.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nNotable conjunctions in March:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n2nd<\/sup> \u2013 Moon 6.0\u00b0 from Spica<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n5th<\/sup> \u2013 Mercury 0.3\u00b0 from Jupiter, moon 5.0\u00b0 from\nAntares<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n10th<\/sup> \u2013 Saturn 3.6\u00b0 from moon, Jupiter 3.9\u00b0 from moon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n11th<\/sup> \u2013 Neptune 1.1\u00b0 from sun, Mercury 3.5\u00b0 from moon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n19th<\/sup> \u2013 Mars 1.9\u00b0 from moon, moon 5.1\u00b0 from Aldebaran<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n23rd<\/sup> \u2013 Moon 3.4\u00b0 from Pollux<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n26th<\/sup> \u2013 Moon 4.4\u00b0 from Regulus, Venus 1.4\u00b0 from sun\n(superior conjunction)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n29th<\/sup> \u2013 Moon 5.8\u00b0 from Spica<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cetus, Pisces, and Pegasus are setting as night sets in. Gemini, Taurus, and Orion are high at sunset. Leo is an all night constellation. Mars is in Taurus when March begins. It passes close to the Pleiades in the first week. Around the 15th through 19th, the red planet passes through a set of stars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-60"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","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=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":630,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions\/630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}