SkyEye

Welcome to SkyEye, your guide to this month's celestial events.

March 2008

All times and dates are given in Universal Time (UT).
Nightly darkness estimates are calculated for 45° N and 30° S.
Like total solar eclipses, lunar occultation events can be seen only from limited regions on Earth (and sometimes not at all if the occultation takes place during daylight hours). However, the Moon will appear close in the sky to its "target" for some hours either side of the actual occultation, regardless of where you are.

Date		Event
1	Sat
2	Sun
3	Mon	Mercury at greatest elongation west
4	Tue
5	Wed	Moon occults Mercury: visible from the South Pacific (including Easter Island), most of South America (except the northwest), the mid-Atlantic and western Africa from about 11:00 UT.
		Moon occults Venus: visible from the mid-Pacific, most of the continential United States (except Alaska and the western and north-central states) and Cuba from about 19:00 UT.
		Moon occults Neptune: visible from most of Australia from about 23:00 UT.
6	Thu
7	Fri	New Moon
8	Sat	Uranus at conjunction
9	Sun
10	Mon	Moon at perigee
11	Tue
12	Wed
13	Thu
14	Fri	First Quarter Moon
15	Sat
16	Sun
17	Mon
18	Tue
19	Wed
20	Thu	Equinox on Earth
21	Fri	Full Moon
22	Sat
23	Sun
24	Mon
25	Tue
26	Wed	Moon at apogee
27	Thu
28	Fri
29	Sat	Last Quarter Moon
30	Sun	Mars at east quadrature
31	Mon

The Solar System

The word planet is derived from the Greek word for "wanderer." Unlike the background stars, planets seem to move around the sky, keeping mostly to a narrow track called the ecliptic, the path of the Sun across the stars. Dwarf planets and small solar-system bodies including comets, are not so constrained, often moving far above or below the ecliptic.

Sun: Aquarius -> Pisces
The solar south pole is most inclined towards the Earth early this month. An equinox occurs on Earth on 20 March. The word equinox means "equal night" so that on this day, the (centre of the) Sun spends an equal amount of time above and below the horizon everywhere on the planet.
Mercury: Capricornus -> Aquarius
Both of the inner planets are high in the east at sunrise for southern hemisphere viewers but not so well-placed for those in the north hoping to catch a glimpse of these two bright objects.
Venus: Capricornus -> Aquarius
The "morning star" continues to descend towards the eastern horizon, becoming particularly low for northern hemisphere observers.
Mars: Taurus -> Gemini
The red planet fades to "only" first magnitude. At east quadrature on 30 March, Mars appears distinctly gibbous in a small telescope. It passes very near the star Mebsuta (epsilon Geminorum) at the end of the month.
Jupiter: Sagittarius
The largest planet in the solar system rises in the early morning.
Saturn: Leo
The ringed planet is up most of the night, setting at dawn.
Uranus: Aquarius
This gas giant will be unobservable this month as it is at conjunction on 8 March.
Neptune: Capricornus
A small telescope is necessary to view the most distant planet in the solar system but observations will be difficult because Neptune was at conjunction last month and rises during morning twilight.

The Celestial Sphere

Constellations are patterns of stars in the sky. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognises 88 different constellations. The brightest stars as seen from the Earth are easy to spot but do you know their proper names? With a set of binoculars you can look for fainter objects such as nebulae and galaxies or some of the closest stars to the Sun.

Descriptions of the sky for observers in both the northern and southern hemispheres are available for the following times this month. Subtract one hour from your local time if summer (daylight savings) time is in effect.

Local Time	Northern Hemisphere	Southern Hemisphere
1730 hours (1830 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
1930 hours (2030 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
2130 hours (2230 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
2330 hours (0030 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0130 hours (0230 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0330 hours (0430 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0530 hours (0630 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S

For More Information...

Consult our online glossary for non-technical explanations of many of the astronomical terms used in these pages.
Blue moons, eclipses, the dates of Easter and much more can be found at the Interactive Astronomy Pages.
For more information about the objects and events described in SkyEye, visit these astronomy-related sites.

Credits

Much of this information can be found in this month's issue of your favourite amateur astronomy magazine available in your local bookshop. Another excellent source is the current edition of the Astronomical Calendar by Guy Ottewell and published by the Universal Workshop at Furman University.

The image of the variable star V838 Monocerotis in the SkyEye banner is courtesy of NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Located 20,000 light years away in the constellation of Monoceros, V838 Mon temporarily brightened in early 2002. The reason for this outburst is not understood. The resulting light echo, the light from the stellar explosion illuminating the dust surrounding the the star, was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in October of that year.