The Sky This Week - Thursday February 28 to Thursday March 7

The New Moon is Thursday, March 7. Mars is visible low in the evening skies.  Jupiter is high in the morning skies above Saturn and bright Venus. The crescent Moon is close to Saturn on the 2nd and Venus on the 3rd. Saturn pulls away from Venus over the week.

The New Moon is Thursday, March 7. The New Moon is at apogee on the 4th.

Morning  sky on Sunday, March 3 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 5:37 ACDST (90 minutes before sunrise). Jupiter is high in the morning sky above the pair of Venus and Saturn. At this time Venus and the crescent Moon are close. The left upper insert inset shows the telescopic view of Venus at this time. the lower left insert shows the telescopic view of Jupiter at the same scale and the upper right that of Saturn.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise).

Approximate wide field telescope view of  Venus and the crescent Moon on Sunday, March 3 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 5:37 ACDST (90 minutes before sunrise). The field of view is approximately that of a 25mm eyepiece on a 4" Newtonian reflector. Venus and the Moon are approximately 43 minutes of arc from each other (approximately two lunar diameters, click to embiggen)

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time using widefield eyepieces (90 minutes before sunrise).

 

Evening sky on Saturday, March 2 as seen looking north-west from Adelaide at 21:20 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset). Mars is the brightest object above the western horizon.

The Pleiades and Hyades also grace the north-western sky.

Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Evening sky on Saturday, March 2 as seen looking South-east from Adelaide at 21:20 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset).

Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

This week is is  a good time to observe our wonderful southern sky with the Moon out of the way. Looking at the wonderful clusters and nebula of our southern skies with the unaided eye or binoculars will be a treat.

The Milky way stretches from the Southern cross (Wilto the Eagle to the people of the Adelaide Plains) in the south to the distinctive constellation of Orion and beyond. The Milky ways' satellite dwarf galaxies, the Magellanic clouds, (between and below the bright stars Canopus and Achernar) are easily seen away from the city lights. Near Mimosa (beta Crucis) is a delightful southern gem, the Jewel box cluster. The inset shows the approximate 10x50 binocular view of the are around the  Jewel box cluster. The bracketed area shows the jewel box cluster itself.

Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).



Venus is bright in the morning skies below Jupiter and Saturn. Venus is visited by the cresent Moon on the 3rd. The pair are less than a finger-width apart, and so should fit into the same filed of view in widefiled telescope eyepieces. This will alos be a good time to seen Venus in the daylight, if you are acreful to keep the sun blocked by a large building or so.

Mercury  is lost in the twilight

Jupiter  climbs higher in the morning sky.

Mars is in Pisces and is readily seen as the brightest object in the western evening sky. Mars sets around 10:30pm.

Saturn is climbs higher in the morning sky heading away from Venus. It is close too the thin crescent Moon on the 2nd.

 Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEDST, Western sky at 10 pm AEDST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/