Planets of the Month: March 2019

by Erich Karkoschka

planet-of-the-month-mars Mars is still magnitude 1, 40 degrees high at dusk, sets at 11 pm. It is moving toward Taurus with Aldebaran of similar brightness and color.  The last week of March it is 3 degrees south of the Pleiades.
Uranus is visible in binoculars below Mars.
Jupiter transits at dawn.
Venus is further east and stays low at dawn.
Saturn is 26 degrees east of Jupiter, the closest since 2001.
Mercury is visible at dusk till the 5th and at dawn starting on the 30th.
The moon is close to Venus on the morings of March 2 and 3. The moon will be back in the evening sky on the 7th as a very thin crescent low in the west.