The Sky This Week from March 6 to 13 – Astronomy Magazine

Friday, March 6A waxing Moon hangs out in Cancer the Crab all night. About 18 to its west is yellowish Pollux in Gemini, and nearly 4 farther is the whiter-hued Castor. The latter appears to the naked eye as a magnitude 1.6 star, but it is actually a six-star system. The two brightest stars, Castor A and B, can be separated with a small telescope.A third component, the dimmer Castor C, lies about 1.2' away.

Saturday, March 7Night owls can take a gander at one of the best globular clusters visible in the Northern Hemisphere. Messier 13, also known as the Hercules Cluster, rises above the horizon with its namesake constellation about 9 P.M. local time but is well poised for clearer viewing by midnight and into the early hours of the morning. This cluster of ancient stars circling our galaxy contains more than 100,000 members that combine to create its magnitude 5.8 glow.

Sunday, March 8Venus and Uranus lie just over 2 apart in the evening sky. You can use Venus to easily find the ice giant by using binoculars or a telescope to locate a pair of 7th-magnitude stars about 1.2 to the lower left of Venus. Travel twice that distance in the same direction to reach brighter Uranus, glowing at magnitude 5.9.

Neptune is in conjunction with the Sun at 8 A.M. EDT. However, its position means it is lost from view in the bright glare of our star. It will make its way back to visibility by the end of next month.

For most of the United States and Canada, daylight saving time begins at 2 A.M. local time this morning. Set your clocks ahead one hour.

Monday, March 9Venus passes 2 north of Uranus this morning at 11 A.M. EDT. The inferior planet will continue to move noticeably through Aries as March progresses, while the more distant ice giant moves only about 1 eastward during the month.

Mercury is stationary at 4 A.M. EDT. From here, it will move toward its greatest western elongation, which it will reach on the 23rd.

The Full Moon occurs at 1:48 P.M. EDT. This evening, our satellite rises in Virgo as the Sun is setting and will set in the morning around dawn. Full Moon is an excellent time to easily observe Luna with or without additional optical assistance; keep in mind that the Moon will appear especially bright through binoculars or a telescope. The Full Moon also washes out much of the sky, making this time best for observing planets and brighter stars, but poor for deep-sky objects such as galaxies and nebulae.

Tuesday, March 10The Moon reaches perigee, its closest point to Earth in its orbit, at 2:30 A.M. EDT. At that time, it will sit 221,905 miles (357,121 kilometers) from our planet.

When the Full Moon occurs at perigee, it is sometimes called a supermoon by the media. Although this is an evocative name, the Full Moon will only appear about 7 percent larger than average, which is difficult if not impossible for observers to discern.

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The Sky This Week from March 6 to 13 - Astronomy Magazine