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Your guide to constellations, deep-sky objects,

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planets, and events.

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Tonight's Sky, highlights of the March Sky.

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For the first half of March,

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Mars and Venus appear in the western sky after sunset.

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Catch them early, because late in the month,

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Venus slips below the horizon before twilight ends.

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During the final week of March, though,

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Mercury takes the place of Venus

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low above the western horizon.

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Try to glimpse the small planet

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before it disappears from view.

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In the late evening,

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watch for Jupiter rising in the east.

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A telescope will reveal the gas planet’s dark

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cloud bands.

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A large telescope might reveal the Great Red Spot.

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As the brilliant stars of winter

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progress toward the west,

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the constellations of spring make their appearance.

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Two March constellations
derived from Greek mythology,

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Gemini and Cancer, lie in the zodiac.

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The zodiac is the name for the band of sky

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through which the Sun, Moon,

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and planets appear to travel.

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The Gemini twins lie high overhead.

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They were among Jason’s Argonauts,

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who sailed the seas searching for the Golden Fleece.

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The two bright stars are the heads of the brothers,

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Castor and Pollux.

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A fuzzy patch lies near the “feet” of the Gemini twins.

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Called M35,

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it is a pretty cluster of several hundred stars.

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Cancer is often identified as a crab

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but has also been seen as a lobster or crayfish.

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In Greek mythology,

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Cancer was placed in the heavens by Hera,

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wife of Zeus, to immortalize its tenacious

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but futile battle with Hercules.

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It is a much dimmer constellation than Gemini,

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and hard to see in light-polluted skies.

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Within Cancer lies the lovely Beehive Cluster.

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Ancient stargazers called it “the cloudy
star.”

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This large cluster contains hundreds of stars

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and lies about 577 light-years away from us.

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Saturn appears in the southeast in the pre-dawn hours.

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Use a telescope to spy its famous rings.