By Duncan Lunan

The Moon will be Full on March 7^th, and it will be New on March 21^st, the day after the spring equinox on March 20^th.  The Moon is between Venus and Jupiter on the 23^rd, passing Venus on the 24^th and Mars on the 28^th.  British Summer Time starts on March 26^th, on which the Moon will pass close to the Pleiades during the day, visible below them on the evening of the 25^th and above them 24 hours later.

According to my regular sources  (Nigel Henbest’s Stargazing 2023 and the 2023 Guide to the Night Sky by Storm Dunlop and Wil Tirion), the planet Mercury is not visible this month, at superior conjunction beyond the Sun on March 17^th.  However the March 2023 issue of Astronomy Now predicts that it will be visible in the evening sky from the 23^rd onwards, and close to Jupiter on the 27^th, while warning to be sure the Sun has gone down before searching for them close to the horizon.

Venus is very bright now in the evening sky, very close to Jupiter on March 1^st.  By February 24^th the conjunction was already spectacular, with the crescent Moon having passed between them and risen above.  Venus is below the Moon again on March 23^rd and 24^th, and is occulted by the Moon on the 24^th, as seen from southeast Asia and the Philippines.  Venus passes above Uranus in Aries on March 31^st, setting at 11.00 p.m. at the end of the month.

Mars is still in Taurus, growing fainter as it moves into Gemini, setting about 2.30 a.m. and passed by the Moon on the 28^th.  Mars will be close to the Open Cluster M35 in Gemini at the end of the month.

Ceres, the largest of the asteroids, is at its closest to us on March 21^st, while passing through the constellation Coma Berenices and the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.  Ceres will pass the M91 galaxy on March 10^th -11^th, and will cross the spiral arms of M100 on the night of March 26^th -27^th.

At the other end of the scale, on November 2^nd NASA’s outbound Lucy probe will pass within photographic range of the small, newly discovered Main Belt asteroid 152830, which has been named ‘Dinkinesh’  (‘you are marvellous’, in the Aramaic spoken in Ethiopia).  At 0.4 miles in diameter, the asteroid is actually slightly larger than Bennu, the Near-Earth Asteroid from which the OSIRIS-REX probe is now bringing back samples, for delivery to Earth on September 23^rd this year.  One of Lucy’s large solar panels is still only 98% open, and attempts to latch it have ceased now that the spacecraft is so far from the Sun, but it’s thought that it will be able to complete powered flybys of Jupiter’s Trojan families of asteroids..

Jupiter sets at 8.30 p.m. in March, near Venus on the 1^st and at their closest on March 2^nd.  On the 24^th Jupiter is occulted by the Moon, as seen from the north of South America and the Caribbean.  It will be close to the right of Jupiter on the 28^th, before disappearing behind the Sun by the end of the month.

There’s interesting news from Jupiter’s moons:  the James Webb Space Telescope, the Keck telescope on Hawaii and others have obtained new data on Io’s aurora  (long known), and confirmed that Europa, Ganymede and Callisto have aurorae as well.  They’re being explained as the product of interaction with Jupiter’s magnetic field, which rotates faster than the orbital speeds of all four. But since Callisto is the only one outside Jupiter’s radiation belts, does this mean it too has subsurface water, like Europa and Ganymede?  With JUICE, the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, scheduled to launch on April 14^th, maybe we’ll know in 8 years or so when it reaches its destinations.

Saturn in Capricornus is not visible this month and passes Mercury on March 2^nd.  It will be in the morning sky by the end of March, but not visible from the UK.

Uranus in Aries sets at 11.30 p.m., passed by the Moon on the 25^th andnear Venus late in the month  (closest on March 30^th and31^st).

Neptune is out of the sight this month, on the far side of the Sun, at conjunction on March 16^th.

I tried four times to see the green Comet 2022 E3 as it came down through Draco in late January and early February, but the sky here was too hazy.  My colleague Alan Cayless saw it from Bridge of Allan, but only as a smudge too faint to photograph.  Its 50,000-year orbit is so close to Solar System escape that after this passage among the inner planets, it may never be back.

Duncan Lunan’s recent books are available through Amazon.  For more information see Duncan’s website www.duncanlunan.com

You can download a copy of the March 2023 Star Map here: