On March 3, 2026, the full moon passes into the Earth’s shadow at dawn. The partial lunar eclipse starts at 3:50 a.m. CST, and totality begins at 5 a.m. and ends at 6 a.m. The eastern U.S. will see the moon setting still partially eclipsed; only the west will see the whole eclipse.
If it is clear, the EAAA will host a gaze in the dawn on Tuesday morning, March 3, from 3 AM until dawn and moonset at the Airport Approach, intersection of Langley and McAlister, across from the ST Engineering sign. Be sure to bring your smartphone!
The moon is last quarter on March 11. It is new on March 18. On March 19, look for a very thin crescent moon to the lower right of brilliant Venus, low in the western twilight. The Moon will be much easier to find in darker skies to the upper right of Venus by March 20. At 9:46 p.m. CDT on March 20, spring begins with the Vernal Equinox. The Moon is at first quarter on March 25, and just above and to the right of bright Jupiter, almost overhead.
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Mercury is too close to the sun most of the month, but can be glimpsed in the dawn during the last week of March. Venus, by contrast, is BACK, now low in the evening sky right after sunset. It passes one degree north of Saturn in twilight on March 7. You will probably need binocs to catch Saturn, and after this evening, it will be lost in the Sun’s glare for over a month. The Moon and Venus make a fine pair in the west on March 20. Mars is still lost in the Sun’s glare and will return to the dawn in April. While Saturn, as noted above, is getting lost in the Sun’s glare dominates the winter sky, shining bright overhead near Castor and Pollux in the Gemini. While its four largest moons are easily spotted with small telescopes, EAAA member Marc Glover needed an 8” scope and fine seeing to capture this great shot (below) of its Great Red Spot, moon Io, and its shadow to the left.
For a detailed map of northern hemisphere skies, visit skymaps.com.
The constellation Cassiopeia makes a striking W in the NW. South of Cassiopeia is Andromeda’s hero, Perseus. Between him and Cassiopeia is the fine Double Cluster, faintly visible with the naked eye and two fine binocular objects in the same field. Perseus contains the famed eclipsing binary star Algol, where the Arabs imagined the eye of the gorgon Medusa would lie. It fades to a third of its normal brightness for six out of every 70 hours. At the Big Lagoon gaze on February 7, I used my iPhone 12s and a small tripod with a smartphone holder to capture the fall sky myths playing out in the western sky with the free Nocturne app; alas, it is presently available only for iPhones. Cassiopeia lies to the north (right) of the hero, and his damsel in distress, Andromeda, is in the center. Aries the Ram is getting kicked, and above this foot is the Pleiades cluster
At Perseus’ feet for the famed Pleiades cluster; they lie about 400 light-years distant, and over 250 stars are members of this fine group. East of the seven sisters is the V of stars marking the face of Taurus the Bull, with bright orange Aldebaran as his eye. The V of stars is the Hyades cluster, older than the blue Pleiades, but about half their distance. Yellow Capella, a giant star the same temperature and color as our much smaller Sun, dominates the overhead sky in the northwest.
East of Auriga, the twins, Castor and Pollux, highlight the Gemini; it is directly above us as darkness falls in early March. UWF alumni can associate the pair with Jason and the Golden Fleece legend, for they were the first two Argonauts to sign up on his crew of adventurers. Bright Jupiter lies south of the twins now overhead at dark.
South of Gemini, Orion is the most familiar winter constellation, dominating the southern sky at dusk. The reddish supergiant Betelgeuse marks his eastern shoulder, while blue-white supergiant Rigel stands opposite on his western knee. How bright does Betelgeuse appear to you tonight? In 2019-20, this famed supergiant had expanded and cooled, forming a dust envelope that has darkened much of its southern hemisphere to less than a quarter of its normal brightness in visible light. Now the dust has dissipated, and it is back at its normal brightness as the alpha star of Orion again. Just south of the belt, hanging like a sword downward, is M-42, the Great Nebula of Orion, an outstanding binocular and telescopic stellar nursery.
In the east are the hunter’s two faithful companions, Canis major and minor. Procyon is the bright star in the little dog, and rises minutes before Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Sirius dominates the SE sky as darkness falls. At eight light-years distance, Sirius is the closest star we can easily see with the naked eye from West Florida. When Sirius is highest, along our southern horizon, look for the second brightest star, Canopus, getting just above the horizon and sparkling like an exquisite diamond as the turbulent winter air twists and turns this shaft of starlight, after a trip of about 200 years!
The winter Milky Way has many nebulae and clusters, and one of the finest deep sky objects was caught last week by Marc Glover, this time with his 8” wide-angle RASA scope (below). This is NGC 2359, which all Marvel Fans will recognize as “Thor’s Helmet."
To the northeast, look for the bowl of the Big Dipper rising, with the top two stars, the pointers, giving you a line to find Polaris, the Pole Star. In West Florida, it sits unmoving 30 degrees high in our northern sky.
If you take the pointers of the Big Dipper’s bowl to the south, you are guided instead to the head of Leo the Lion rising in the east, looking much like the profile of the famed Sphinx. The bright star at the Lion’s heart is Regulus, the “regal star." The folk wisdom that “March comes in like a Lion” probably refers to the head of Leo rising just after sunset in early March eastern twilight.
The constellation Cancer lies midway between Gemini to the west and Regulus to the east of it. Almost directly overhead when darkness falls at month’s end, look under dark skies for a faint blur of light in the middle of the four stars that make up the crab’s body. This is the Praespe, or Beehive, cluster, M-44, familiar to the ancients. Its blurry appearance led Charles Messier to include it in his catalog of things that look at first like comets, but do not move and are far away among the stars and galaxies. Now check it out with binoculars, and resolve it into dozens of stars, hence the “Beehive!"
If you follow the handle of the Big Dipper to the south by 9 p.m., you will be able to “arc to Arcturus," the brightest star of Spring and distinctly orange in color. Its color is an indication of its uniqueness. Its large speed and direction through the Milky Way suggest it was not formed with our Galaxy, but is a recent capture from the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, a smaller satellite galaxy now being assimilated by our huge spiral galaxy. Many of its lost stars, like Arcturus, follow a band across the sky at about a 70-degree angle to our galactic plane. Arcturus is at the tail of kite-shaped Bootes, the celestial bear driver chasing the two bears from his flocks. Spike south then to Spica in Virgo. Here appearance to the Greeks marked the time to plant, for they associated Virgo with Persephone, daughter of Ceres of the Harvest, returning from six months underground with Pluto to now bless the growth and greening of the upperworld. So when Spica rises now at sunset in the SE, it is time to plant your peas! Likewise, when Persephone goes back down to Hades and disappears in the sun’s glare in September SW skies, it is time to get your corn in the crib! This cycle goes back to the birth of agriculture.
For March 6, the Pensacola State Planetarium will present “Mayan Skies” at 6 p.m. Be sure to reserve your tickets on Purple Pass.
We have set new dates for our EAAA public gaze at Big Lagoon State Park west of Pensacola for Saturdays, March 7 and 21; remember the park gate closes at sunset. We plan to be back at the Pensacola Beach Pavilion starting in April. Our next club meeting will be at 7 p.m. in room 1709 at PSC on Friday, March 27.
For more information on the Escambia Amateur Astronomers and our local star gazes for the public, visit us on the web at or join us on Facebook. For gaze info or requests, call Wayne Wooten at (850) 291-9334 or message me on Facebook. You can contact our sponsor, Lauren Rogers, at Pensacola State College at lrogers@pensacolastate.edu.
