The brightest planets in March's night sky: How to see them (and when)

After a "celestial sabbatical" of a few months, Venus is gradually coming back into view. Look for it very low in the western sky about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. It will become increasingly more obvious as the month progresses as it slowly pulls away from the vicinity of the sun.

Jupiter is by far the best planet to observe during March, soaring high into the sky and visible for much of the night. Saturn will be bidding us a fond adieu before it passes through solar conjunction during the final week of March, passing relatively close to Venus early in the month. Meanwhile, Mercury and Mars are out of the loop as far as viewing is concerned, being positioned much too close to the sun to be readily seen all through this month.

In our schedule, remember that when measuring the angular separation between two celestial objects, your clenched fist held at arm's length measures roughly 10 degrees. Below, we present a schedule that provides some of the best planet viewing times as well as telling you where to look to see them.

SPECIAL NOTE: Daylight Saving Time returns on March 8, the second Sunday in March. Except in the states of Arizona and Hawaii, and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, clocks are to be moved forward one hour at 2:00 a.m. The mnemonic is: "Spring forward, Fall back."

The sun

On March 20, at 10:46 a.m. EDT, the sun appears to cross the celestial equator moving north. Spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn begins in the Southern Hemisphere.

Mercury

Mercury is now unviewable, as this tiny orb swings through inferior conjunction with the sun on March 7.

Venus

Gleaming at a brilliant magnitude -3.9, Venus is beginning to become more evident in the early evening sky. In fact, during the first week of March, some might report a bright "UFO" hovering just above the western horizon right after the sun has gone down. Yet, by the time the sky becomes dark enough for other stars to appear, the bright object is gone.

Since early December, Venus has been positioned too close to the sun to be seen. Since late February, however, it has been slowly edging away from the sun, becoming briefly visible just before it sets in bright twilight. At the beginning of the month, it is setting one hour after the sun. During March, Venus will set about 1.3 minutes later each evening, so that by month's end it will be more obvious, setting more than 1.5 hours after sunset and right around the end of evening twilight.

On the evening of March 8, Venus will be accompanied by a companion, the planet Saturn, which itself can be glimpsed very low in the west during dusk in the opening days of March. On March 8, these two worlds will be separated by just one degree, with Saturn situated to Venus' lower left, though shining only about one-hundredth as bright.

On the evening of March 19, about 45 minutes after sunset, look low toward the western horizon to sight an exceedingly narrow (1% illuminated) crescent moon. At any age under 24 hours (such as this particular case) the moon appears breathtakingly thin and barely brighter than the sky around it. As such, binoculars will be beneficial in making a successful sighting. About 7 degrees to its upper left shines Venus. Tomorrow evening, a somewhat wider (5%) lunar crescent will have shifted to a position about 7 degrees above Venus. As bright and imposing as Venus appears to the eye, telescopically it is boring this month, appearing as nothing more than a small, shaky (albeit dazzling) round dot.

Mars

Mars is still too near the sun to be seen easily in March.

Jupiter

Jupiter, the solar system's biggest planet, is near the meridian high in the south when it first gleams through the fading daylight after sunset. After darkness falls and with Venus setting less than 90 minutes after sunset, Jupiter shines in the middle of Gemini as the brightest "star" in the sky, while Gemini swings westward and rotates into an upright position to set feet-first. Jupiter itself goes down a few hours before local sunrise. On March 26, Jupiter will shine well to the lower right of that evening's waxing gibbous moon.

Saturn

Saturn is soon lost in the solar glare and reaches conjunction with the sun on March 25. Perhaps your best chance to get a glimpse of it will come on March 8, when it is passing close to Venus (see Venus above). Unfortunately, our telescopic view of Saturn's rings tilting rapidly back into view will be greatly distorted by atmospheric turbulence near the horizon.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope, The Old Farmer's Almanac and other publications.

Editor's note: Due to an editor's error, the wrong version of this story was posted originally. The correct version was posted at 8:50 p.m. ET on March 3.