By Eric Karkoschka

Mars is the only evening planet. During dusk, it becomes visible in the southwest 70 degrees high and sets around midnight. It passes the Pleiades on the 4th within 3 degrees, which is closer than during the next 17 years.

The morning sky has three planets close to each other, the same planets that were close together in the evening sky at the beginning of the year: Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Saturn rises first, before twilight starts. Mercury and Jupiter rise half an hour later during the first week. They are close together, closest in the morning of the 5th (only .4 degrees). Jupiter is the brighter one of the close pair. Mercury races away from Jupiter and will get lost too close to the Sun on the 23rd. Jupiter and Saturn separate only slowly, from 8 degrees at the beginning of March to 11 degrees at the end.

Two additional planets can be seen in the evening sky with good eyes. Both are 6th magnitude this month. Uranus is about 30 degrees below Mars (~3 clenched fists width at arms length). Minor planet Vesta is in Leo, transiting 75 degrees high around midnight. Vesta’s motion is much faster than Uranus’, so it is easy to see its motion from night to night. Only once every three years or so does a minor planet become naked eye for several weeks.

The Moon will be close to the trio of planets in the morning sky on the 9th and then only three degrees from Mars on the 19th. The thin lunar crescent will be first visible in the evening sky on the 14th, setting before 8 pm.