SKY THIS MONTH
Visible to the naked eye
Visible with binoculars
Visible with a telescope36 ASTRONOMY • MARCH 2020
As we enter the wan-
ing weeks of winter,
Venus dominates the evening
sky for more than three hours
after sunset. And because of
the prominence of the planet,
March is a great time to use
Venus as your guide to spot
Uranus, especially if you’ve
never seen it before. The
pair stand close together for
a couple of days early in the
month. However, the main
planetary focus is in the
morning sky. Get up before
dawn to spot two planetary
conjunctions and three great
planets — Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn — glowing brightly
in the southeastern sky. It’s a
stunning collection that only
grows more striking when the
Moon brief ly joins the party.
Let’s start our tour of the
night sky in the early evening
March 1. A quick look high in
the west reveals a brilliant
planet, Ve nu s, along with awaxing crescent Moon in
Taurus the Bull. Venus shines
at a glittery magnitude of –4.3.
And during the first few days
of March, the world marches
into southern Aries, where
Uranus currently resides.MARCH 2020
Venus sidles up to Uranus
THE SOLAR SYSTEM’S CHANGING LANDSCAPE AS IT APPEARS IN EARTH’S SKY.
BY MARTIN RATCLIFFE AND ALISTER LINGNearby Venus and distant
Uranus stand just a scant 2.2°
apart March 7 and 8. Due to
their proximity, it’s much eas-
ier to pick out the dim magni-
tude 5.9 Uranus from what’s
usually a rather bland starfield. On March 7, grab bin-
oculars to spy Uranus south-
east of Venus. During the
evening, the ice giant sits near
Venus, but there’s another
field star closer to and in the
same direction as the bright
planet. Scan about twice the
star’s distance from Venus to
home in on Uranus, which is
located about 1.9 billion miles
away, or about 24 times far-
ther away than Venus.
On March 8, a pair of 7th-
magnitude stars linger about
1.2° to the lower left of Venus.
Travel twice that distance in
the same direction to track
down the brighter Uranus.
Throughout the remainder
of March, Uranus trudges
about 1° eastward. Venus, in
comparison, jumps through
Aries with aplomb. The nearby
world is joined by a waxing
Moon on March 27 and 28,
when the beautiful pairing
hovers just below the V-shapedVenus rules the evening sky
10°March 24, 1 hour after sunset
Looking westARIESORIONTAURUSPERSEUSANDROMEDAPleiadesVenusAldebaranBetelgeuseRigelThe inner planet stands high in the western sky after sunset all month, but
peaks at greatest elongation March 24. ALL ILLUSTRATIONS: ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLYVenus dazzles on
March evenings,
outshining the night
sky’s brightest star,
Sirius, by 15 times.
In this November
2018 scene, the
planet dominated
the predawn sky.
ALAN DYER