March Podcast: Planets, Stars, and Eclipses! – Sky & Telescope

Listen to this episode on Sky & Telescope’s YouTube channel.

This will be a month of transition in more ways than one. First, on March 9th, we jump to daylight time in virtually all of the U.S. and Canada. March is also when Earth reaches one of the two equinox points in its year-long orbit. This month it falls on the 20th at 5:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. This equinox signals the beginning of northern spring, astronomically speaking, and the start of autumn south of the equator.

The biggest celestial happening this month is a total lunar eclipse — the first of these visible anywhere on Earth since 2022. And it’ll be timed perfectly for North (and South) America! Weather permitting, everyone in the contiguous U.S., Mexico, and Canada will be able to watch the event. However, the timing is tricky: for those on the East Coast of the U.S., totality takes place after midnight on Friday, March 14th — from 2:26 to 3:32 a.m. Eastern Time. But over on the West Cost, totality starts late on Thursday, the 13th, at 11:26 p.m. To avoid any confusion, be sure to check SkyandTelescope.org for full details.

Two weeks later, when the Moon is new on March 29th, it passes almost directly in front of the Sun and create a deep partial solar eclipse. This event definitely favors the Northeast states, as well as Canada’s Maritime provinces, Greenland, and western Europe. For everyone else farther west in North America, the eclipse comes and goes before sunrise. Seen from New York City, 28% of the Sun’s disk will be missing when it rises. From Boston, that fraction jumps to 56%. And from Halifax, Nova Scotia? A whopping 83%.

Meanwhile, the evening “planet parade” continues! Venus has dazzled in the western sky after each sunset. But its days are numbered — watch it literally plunge toward the western horizon over the first weeks of March. And rising up below Venus, as if to take its place, is Mercury. This month the innermost planet makes its best evening showing of the year. Your best nights to look will be March 7th (or the days just before and after that). Closer to overhead, Jupiter and Mars continue their march westward among the evening stars.

Of course, evening skies in March offer much more to see than planets. Later in the month, once the Moon is a few days past full and absent after sunset, face south and look up — all the brilliant stars of winter are arrayed before you in all their glory.

Probably easiest to spot is Orion, the Hunter. Look for a distinctive row of three stars in a roughly horizontal line that mark the Hunter’s Belt. To the belt’s upper left is the bright star Betelgeuse. Now imagine that Betelgeuse is at the center of a huge six-sided hexagon in the sky. Each corner of this pattern features one or two prominent stars — along with Jupiter and Mars (for now). Listen to this month’s Sky Tour to learn which stars make up this “Winter Hexagon.”

Finally, did you know that Sky Tour has been produced every month since 2006? Along the way it has introduced countless thousands of beginning skywatchers to the simple beauty of the night sky. No experience or equipment is needed — so grab this month’s episode and get a guided tour of this month’s night sky!

Read the full podcast transcript.