Astroblog: Thursday March 24 to Thursday March 31

Monday, March 21, 2022

Thursday March 24 to Thursday March 31

The Last Quarter Moon is Friday March 25. At the beginning of the week all 5 bright planets are visible in the morning twilight. Mars is readily visible in the morning sky just above bright Venus although the pair are drifting apart. Saturn rises towards Venus as Mercury sinks towards the horizon, Jupiter is now visible low in the twilight. On the28th the crescent Moon forms a line with Mars and Venus with Saturn below, on the 29th the crescent Moon forms a triangle with Mars, Venus and Saturn. On the 31st the thin crescent moon is close to Jupiter in the twilight.

The Last Quarter Moon is Friday March 25. The Moon is at Perigee, when it is closest to the Earth, on the 24th.

Morning sky on Monday March 28 as seen from Adelaide at 6:30 am ACDST (60 minutes before sunrise). the crescent Moon,Venus and Mars form a line with Saturn close to Venus and Jupiter low to the horizon.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Morning sky on Tuesday March29 as seen from Adelaide at 6:30 am ACDST (60 minutes before sunrise). the crescent Moon forms a triangle with Mars, Venus and Saturn. Jupiter is low to the horizon..

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Morning sky on Thursday March 31 as seen from Adelaide at 7:09 am ACDST (30 minutes before sunrise). Venus and Mars are high in the twilight, Jupiter and the thin crescent Moon are close low in the twilight glow.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (30 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Whole sky on Saturday March 26, 20:43 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Orion, Taurus and the Pleiades can be seen above the north-western horizon. Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are a wealth of binocular objects to discover.

Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

Mercury sinks towards the horizon and is lost to view early in the week.

Venus is high in the morning twilight and is moving away from Mars. On the28th the crescent Moon forms a line with Mars and Venus with Saturn below, on the 29th the crescent Moon forms a triangle with Mars, Venus and Saturn.

Mars is rising higher, forming a widening pair with Venus.

Jupiter returns to the morning twilight. On the 31st the thin crescent moon is close to Jupiter in the twilight.

Saturn leaves Mercury behind and heads towards Venus. On the28th the crescent Moon forms a line with Mars and Venus with Saturn below, on the 29th the crescent Moon forms a triangle with Mars, Venus and Saturn.

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.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

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/

Labels: weekly sky