1. Highlighting the Near and Deep Sky
What’s Up E W
Highlighting the Near and Deep Sky
March , 2018 S

2. General Information March 2018
Among this month’s celestial happenings:
The two innermost planets engage in a pas de deux.
Our time keeping conventions and human bio-rhythms collide.
We exit winter, though astronomers and meteorologists differ on when.
Sunset Range: 6:14 PM EST (March 1st) to 7:42 PM DST (March 31st).
End of Astronomical Twilight*: 7:40 PM EST (March 1st) to 9:10 PM DST (March 31st).
* This is “full darkness” – the sun has reached 18° below the horizon. It’s usually dark enough for observing about a half hour before this.

3. Moon Phases March 2018 Thurs., 1st – Full Moon
Fri., 9th – Last Quarter (Fri./Sat. observing opportunities Mar. 9th/10th)
Sat., 17th – New Moon (Fri./Sat. observing opportunities Mar. 16th/17th)
Sat., 24th – First Quarter
Sat., 31st – Full Moon (Part of January-March “Double Blue Moon”)
Roughly speaking:
First Quarter Moon is highest at sunset and sets at midnight
Full Moon rises at sunset and is in the sky all night
Last (“Third”) Quarter Moon rises at midnight and is highest at dawn
New Moon sets at sunset and is absent from the sky all night

4. Celestial Events March 2018
Sat., 3rd – Mars and Jupiter at heliocentric conjunction (ecliptic longitude 223.3º ).
Fri., 9th – Jupiter stationary; begins retrograde (westward) motion.
Sun., 11th, 2:00 AM – Begin Daylight Saving Time; set clocks ahead 1 hour.
Sun., 11th – Moon at apogee; distance Earth-radii.
Thurs., 15th – Mercury at greatest eastern elongation; 18.4º from the Sun in the evening sky. Best opportunity to see Mercury.
Sun., 18th – Line up of very thin crescent Moon (2% illum.), Venus and Mercury visible low in the west after sunset.
Tue., 20th, 12:15 PM – Vernal Equinox; beginning of spring. (Sun at 0.0º ecliptic longitude and 0 hrs right ascension and 0.0º declination.)
Mon., 26th – Moon at perigee; distance Earth-radii (8.8% closer than on the 11th).
11.1º
Daylight Removed

5. (~30 min. before full darkness)
March 15th, 8:30 p.m. DST
(~30 min. before full darkness)
For tonight, Feb. 19th, 7:00 p.m. EST is about 30 min. before full darkness.
Mercury
Venus E
Uranus W
Stargazers Online S

6. What’s Up programs are posted on the RVAS Website!
Questions
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What’s Up programs are posted on the RVAS Website!