March will see the smallest planet, Mercury, and the largest planet, Jupiter, provide the best planetary conjunction of the year.
Mercury and Jupiter in the Year's Best Conjunction
March is the month in 2011 that Mecury-watchers get their best views of the planet. Mercury never gets far away from the sun and therefore must be viewed in the hours just after sunset or just before sunrise. Start looking around the evening of March 7, when Mercury should begin to shine through the twilight's glow. You'll see the crescent moon in the west, with Jupiter at magnitude -2.1 shining brightly below it, and below that, close to the horizon, will be Mercury.
Mercury is shining rather brightly itself at magnitude -1.4. Each night that follows, Mercury and Jupiter will get closer together in the sky until March 15, when they lie two degrees apart. This is the best conjunction of bright planets in the evening sky for the year 2011. Mercury will have dimmed a bit by this date, shining at magnitude -0.9. Jupiter is the planet on the left, Mercury is on the right. If you miss the closest conjunction of Jupiter and Mercury on March 15, the week leading up to it and after still provides great views of the two planets together.
Mercury and Jupiter will pull away from each other after March 15, with Jupiter sinking toward the horizon, where it will soon set with the sun. March is Jupiter's last hurrah, because in the coming months it will become a morning object. Another notable conjunction with Jupiter is Jupiter and the moon on March 6, when the crescent moon will float six degrees away. While Mercury fades rapidly in the last week of the month, Jupiter is lower and will disappear first but will remain bright for the duration that it is above the horizon.
The Biggest Full Moon of 2011
The closest full moon occurs on March 19, with the peak of fullness at 2:10 p.m. EDT. The moon is at perigee 221,565 miles from Earth on this date, its closest of the year. March's full moon is sometimes called the Worm Moon, relating to spring and the return of robins.
Two other March dates that provide a pretty view of the moon are March 10 and 11. On March 10, the Pleiades star cluster is to the upper right of the moon. The next evening, the moon can be found near the Hyades cluster and the star Aldebaran.
The First Day of Spring for the Northern Hemisphere
The equinox occurs a day after the full moon, on March 20 at 7:21 p.m. EDT. The beginning of spring in the astronomical world is when the sun is directly overhead at the equator at noon. In half a year, this will again occur and mark the fall equinox. In the Southern Hemisphere, the March equinox is the start of fall and the September equinox is the start of spring.
For deep-sky observing in March, target spring galaxies or try your hand at a Messier Marathon.
Source: Celestron's The Sky Software
Kelly Whitt - I have been a professional writer for more than a decade, covering many topics from science-based articles to do-it-yourself home ...
