Mercury finishes its morning apparition during the first week of March. On the 2nd it passes the fainter Saturn less than 1 degree south of it.
Venus and Mars stay within 5 degrees of each other. Their minimum distance is 4 degrees on the 15th. They rise well before dawn starts. On the 29th, Venus passes Saturn 2 degrees north of it. Venus is at greatest western elongation on the 20th as spring starts. In a telescope it appears as half a disk.
Slower Mars will pass Saturn on the 4th of April 0.3 degrees south. The last week of March is a good time to watch the triangle of Venus, Mars, and Saturn changing shape from day to day.
March has two New Moons, on the 2nd and 31st. It is visible on the 3rd as a very slim crescent at bright dusk. The almost Full Moon is close to Regulus on the evening of the 15th and close to the trio of planets in the morning sky on the 28th. It is still visible on the 29th and possibly on the 30th to the lower right of Jupiter.
Jupiter joins the other morning planets on the 26th, but only poorly visible near the horizon.
Saturn may not be visible naked eye on the 2nd, but will rise earlier and earlier. By the end of the month, it will rise together with Venus and Mars.
Uranus is the only planet in the evening sky. You can find it with binoculars in Aries.
Mercury is visible at dawn all month, about 15 degrees to the lower left of Venus.
Venus is at it best during this morning visibility. It rises before 5 am and is well up by the tie dawn starts. It starts the month as a beautiful, large crescent that is easily visible in binoculars. It ends the month as a thick, smaller crescent. It is visible during the daytime if the sky is very clear and you know where to look, for example at 10 am 40 degrees high straight south.
This month has NO New Moon. The Moon can be seen every day of the month, although on the 1st one needs binoculars to see the slim crescent at dusk. The next evening it will be close to Jupiter.
Mars is not far from Venus all month, 9 degrees at the beginning of February and 5 degrees at the end. Even in March it will remain within 6 degrees of Venus. During both months, the planetary pair will move by about 50 degrees next to each other through Sagittarius and Capricornus.
Jupiter leaves the evening sky on the 19th.
Saturn is not visible all month.
Uranus is transiting 70 degrees high around sunset and thus well visible in Aries, perhaps even with naked eyes.
Neptune leaves the evening sky just like Jupiter. Jupiter will pass it on April 12 very narrowly but difficult to observe. This happens once every 13 years.
Mercury is visible in the evening sky at dusk and is less than 4 degrees below Saturn from the 9th to the 16th. Around January 16th it switches to the morning sky (about two weeks after Venus) and visible around the 31st.
Venus is visible at early dusk until the 5th. It is larger than one arc-minute in diameter, the largest it can get, and less than two percent illuminated. A spectacular crescent in the telescope. Starting on the 11th, it is the morning “star” with altitudes quickly climbing. By the end of the month it is already well up at the start of dawn.
The Moon comes into the evening sky on the 3rd, when it is about as difficult to see as Mercury and just a little below Mercury. The next evening, the Moon joins Saturn and the following evening, it joins Jupiter.
Iris has a good opposition in Gemini and is brighter than magnitude 8.
Mars is low at dawn. It is close to Antares on the 1st but 20 degrees further east by the end of the month.
Jupiter is still higher than Saturn and keeps going once the other three planets have left the evening sky. By the 31st, it sets within an hour of the end of dusk.
Saturn also switches from evening to morning visibility, but much more slowly. It leave the evening sky on the 19th and will not be visible in the morning until March.
Uranus and Neptune are still higher than Jupiter in the evening sky. Uranus transits just after the end of twilight at 72 degrees altitude.
Comet Leonard could be the best comet of the year during the first week of January, maybe as bright as 3rd magnitude with a nice tail. It is almost stationary 20 degrees to the lower left of Saturn, quite low when dusk ends. Then, it will get even lower and will probably fade, ending its visibility.
Starting on the 22nd, Mercury joins the other three planets at dusk. First, it is below Venus. Then on the 29th to the left of Venus, and then further left and higher than Venus.
Venus is at its brightest during early December. On the 6th, the moon will be close to it. You may be able to find Venus well before sunset about 3 degrees above the moon. Later in December, it rapidly approaches the sun and thus gets low during dusk. By the end of the year, its diameter exceeds one arc-minute, the largest it can get. Its slim crescent is a beautiful sight in telescopes and also visible in binoculars.
From the 5th to the 8th, the lunar crescent passes the three bright planets at dusk. On the last morning of the year, it is close to Mars and Antares.
Mars is the lonely planet at dawn, but faint and low, fare below Spica.
Ceres is still 7th magnitude in Taurus, but fading. On the other hand, Iris is brightening at 8th magnitude in Cancer.
Jupiter is about 15 degrees higher then Saturn and still well positioned for telescopic observations.
Saturn is about 15 degrees above Venus and 15 degrees below Jupiter. It will become invisible in January.
Uranus and Neptune are high in the evening sky. Jupiter will be catching up with Neptune and pass it in April, invisible behind the Sun.
Comet Leonard is in the morning sky near the limit of naked eye visibility until it gets too close to the sun on the 12th. On the 3rd, it is close to globular cluster M3. On the 6th, it is 5 degrees to the left of Arcturus. On the 10th, it is 5 degrees to the left of Alpha Serpentis.
A Total solar eclipse occurs on the 4th, but is far away in Antarctica.
Do you have friends or family visiting over the Holiday’s? Interested in a private stargazing adventure? We can provide a detailed tour of the universe at our astronomy site ~100 miles southeast of Tucson or at a location of your choosing in Tucson or Southern Arizona. To request a reservation and check availability and pricing, visit our Tucson Stargazing Adventures webpage at: https://tucsonastronomy.org/community-services/tucson-stargazing-adventures/
Mercury is an easy dawn object in the east-southeast, but only until the 10th since it is moving fast toward the sun. At the beginning of the month it passes Spica but their distance increases to 14 degrees by the 10th. The best morning is the 3rd when the moon joins both of them.
Venus is at its best this month. It reaches its brightest possible magnitude of -4.9 at the end of the month. This is so bright that it can be found in daylight, such as 3:20 pm 30 degrees hight straight south. It is brilliant after sunset. It is so far south that just past 8 pm it sets further left than the sun can ever set. Its phase can be seen in binoculars, going form half illuminated at the beginning of the month to a thick, large crescent by the end.
The Moon has a great eclipse on the 18th-19th, although not at the best time of the night. It probably is the greatest partial eclipse of your life since 97 percent of its diameter will be inside the umbra at maximum, or 99 percent of its disk area. Maximum is at 2:03 am. Partial phase lasts from 12:18 am to 3:47 am. The interesting phase around maximum lasts for quite a while this time, but only a couple of minutes during most total lunar eclipses. It is interesting because of the contrast between the dark red moon in the umbra and the very bright and very narrow part of the moon getting direct sunlight. At maximum phase, the moon might be dark enough that shadows disappear. Its location only 5 degrees from the Pleiades should be beautiful. The moon transits at the beginning of the eclipse 77 degrees high.
Mars has been behind the sun for a while. At the end of the month, it slowly becomes visible again during dawn.
Jupiter and Saturn transit during the early evening, separated by 15 degrees. In a telescope it is a good time to watch their satellites. This month, the orbits of Jupiter’s satellite are almost edge-on. This means that they appear perfectly in a line and pass each other very closely. On the 23rd, a rare event happens. The two largest satellites, Ganymede and Callisto, cast their shadows onto the planet simultaneously. This happens about once every 5 years, but most of these events happen during daylight or when Jupiter is below the horizon. At sunset, both shadows are close to each other on the eastside of the disk. Ganymede’s shadow is faster and exits 7:39 pm, Callisto’s shadows leaves at 9:03 pm.
Uranus comes into opposition in Aries. So, it is up all night and 73 degrees high at midnight. It is visible naked eye in principle, and no other star of 6th magnitude is currently nearby.
Neptune can be found in binoculars 50 degrees further west of Uranus.
Ceres comes into opposition at 7th magnitude. It moves very close to Aldebaran on the 3rd and 4th, crosses the Hyades for the following two weeks, and then takes aim at the Pleiades.
Mercury has its best morning apparition starting on the 17th. During the last week of October it will be easily visible just before 6 am looking east.
Venus is finally becoming a brilliant evening “star”. All month it sets at 8:10 pm. It speeds past Antares on the 16th at 1 1/2 degrees distance. On the 29th, it is in greatest elongation from the sun at 47 degrees. It moves far south and thus sets further south of west than the sun does in December.
The Moon will be a thin crescent at dusk on the 7th. Two days later it will make a beautiful pair with Venus.
Jupiter and Saturn transit halfway up mid evening. They stop their retrograde motion and move prograde again in Capricornus. They reach their closest separation of 15 degrees at the end of the month. The next time they will be that close will be in 2040. Mondays will be the days to look for Ganymede’s shadow on Jupiter’s disk, on the 11th until 7:30 pm, on the 18th from 8-11:30 pm, just after Io’s shadow entered at 11:15 pm, and on the 25th starting just before midnight. A double transit will occur on the 20th until 8 pm with Io’s shadow and Callisto itself.
Uranus and Neptune are up most of the night in Aries and Aquarius, respectively.
Mercury is visible about 15 degrees to the lower right of Venus until September 21st. It is so low that it remains close to the limit of visibility (use extreme caution to avoid looking at the Sun). It passes Spica on the 21st. However, Spica definitely requires binoculars since it is one magnitude fainter than Mercury.
Venus is the obvious evening star until it sets after 8 pm. It passes Spica on the 5th. Venus is slowly brightening towards its best in December.
The two giant gas planets shine in the southeast during dusk. Their distance slowly decreases from 18 degrees at the beginning of September to 15 degrees at the end. They transit around 10 pm, perfect for telescope or binocular viewing.
The Galilean satellites’ orbits are very close to edge-on this month, so that conjunctions of two satellites become very close. The best shadow transit occurs on the 5th starting at 7:45 pm when the dark disk of Ganymede is already close to the center of Jupiter’s disk, so that two dark spots will be visible. The same occurs 7 days later, although Ganymede’s transit does not start until 9:20 pm with its shadow joining at 11:47 pm. Also, on the 17th, Callisto’s shadow can be seen until 8:13 pm.
Neptune comes into opposition in the constellation Pisces on September 14th. Uranus is one constellation further east in Aries.
The Moon might be just barely visible on September 7th (one day past New Moon), 10 degrees to the right of Mercury. Even if Mercury is difficult to spot, you will see it before you see the Moon. The three day old Moon has a beautiful pairing with Venus on September 9th. Three days later it passes Antares.
Our next VIRTUAL STAR PARTY is Friday August 27th from 7:30 – 9 pm Tucson, AZ time (PDT). We will stream live solar system and deep-sky viewing to our Facebook Page. Join us at: https://www.facebook.com/TucsonAstronomy
Mercury will start its visibility at dusk, but will never get very obvious. It remains close to the Sun.
Venus is the evening star during dusk. It passes Beta Virginis on the 13th at only 7 arc minutes in distance, similar to the distance between Jupiter and Saturn during the last winter solstice. But the faintness of the star will probably require binoculars to see it.
Saturn comes to opposition on August 2nd, when it rises at sunset. Around that time, its rings are very bright as compared to the planet.
Jupiter also comes to opposition this month on August 22nd. The evening before, the Full Moon will be right next to Jupiter.
On the evening of August 18th, the Moon occults Nunki, the second brightest star of the teapot asterism in Sagittarius. In Nogales, it will last from 7:47 to 8:01 pm, but in Tucson the Moon will not quite make it, although it will get very close to the star. In between there is a grazing occupation which is rare for such a bright star to get so close to us.
August is meteor month. The Perseids will peak on the night of August 11-12 when the Moon is next to Venus which sets early. It cannot be much better than that!! Look toward the east late evening or early morning toward the constellation Perseus.
