March 2025 Night Sky Calendar
By Bob King
Transition is the name of the game in March. We move from winter to spring beginning at 4:01 a.m. CDT on March 20th. Saturn, visible in the evening sky since last summer, is now too close to the sun to see. Venus changes roles, switching from Evening Star to Morning Star on March 23rd. And Mercury returns to view for a brief stint at dusk during the first week of the month. The ever-changing nature of the sky reflects the changing seasons and the passage of events in our own lives.
Venus drops sunward rapidly in the next two weeks as it heads toward inferior conjunction, when it will lie almost directly between our planet and the sun. After conjunction, it swings to the west of the sun and reappears low in the east at dawn. Jupiter and Mars are still high and bright in the southern sky. You’ve probably noticed that Mars has faded since January. That’s because its distance from Earth has increased from 60 million miles to its current 86 million miles.
The month’s astronomical highlight will be a total eclipse of the moon on the night of March 13-14. It will be visible across the entire U.S. and Canada during late night and early morning hours. Don’t forget to set your alarm. More details are listed below.
Our featured constellation, Leo the Lion, crouches beneath the Big Dipper in the eastern sky around 8 p.m. local time in early March. It’s made of two parts – the lion’s head, which resembles a sickle or backwards question mark, and the triangle-shaped hind quarters. Leo became famous because of his role in the story of Hercules the Strongman. Hercules, who goes by Heracles in Greek mythology, was tasked by King
Eurystheus to complete 12 labors to atone for killing his wife and children. Before you blame the famous hero, know that he was tricked into doing it by Hera, the wife of Zeus. Heracles was Zeus’s son from another relationship. His wife was jealous of how much time and attention her husband lavished on the son. To get back at him, she inflicts Heracles with madness, forcing him to commit the gruesome deed.
One of his dozen mandated labors was to kill the king of the beasts, the Nemean lion Leo. Arrows were useless again its tough hide so Heracles trapped the lion in a cave and choked it to death. Greek mythology never shies away from the more unpleasant aspects of life.
Download the free Stellarium Mobile app for Android and iPhone to help you find and identify the current planets and constellations. Do a Google search then install the app, set it in night mode (red screen) and point your phone skyward. For a free March sky map and calendar go to www.skymaps.com/downloads.html
March 2025 night sky happenings
Events (a.m. indicates the event happens in the morning sky):
March 1 – The waxing crescent moon makes a pretty sight with Venus low in the western sky at dusk. Use the moon to find star-like Mercury about 10 degrees below it. The best time to see the twilight planet is 45 minutes to an hour after sunset. An unobstructed view to the west helps!
March 5 – Thick crescent moon shines to the right of Jupiter tonight
March 8 – Waxing gibbous moon pairs up closely with the Red Planet Mars. They’ll be a little more than two moon-diameters apart.
March 1-12 – Mercury best visible at dusk not far from Venus. The two are closest on March 9, with Mercury about a bit more than one binocular field of view to the lower left of the brighter planet.
March 6 – First quarter moon. Shines due south around sunset and sets around midnight local time.
March 9 – Start of Daylight Saving Time (2 a.m. Sunday)
March 11–31 – International Space Station makes west-to-east passes across the evening sky. For a complete list of pass times for your location, log in to Heavens-Above.com, select your location and then click the blue ISS link. Times are shown in local 24-hour time. For example, 18:50 is 6:50 p.m. Or just download NASA’s Spot the Station app at the app store or Google Play.
March 13-14 – Eclipse! – Full Worm Moon shines in Leo near the Virgo border. Rises around sunset and sets around sunrise. Overnight, the moon will cross into Earth’s shadow and be eclipsed. The partial eclipse begins on March 14 at 12:10 a.m. CDT. Total eclipse starts at 1:26 a.m. and lasts until 2:31 a.m. During totality the moon glows red-orange from sunlight bent by the atmosphere around Earth’s circumference and into the shadow. Partial eclipse ends at 3:48 a.m. No equipment is needed to enjoy a lunar eclipse, though a pair of binoculars will enhance the beauty of the sight. If you just want a quick look, pop your head out at mid-totality around 2 a.m. CDT.
March 20 (a.m.) – Spring equinox. First day of spring starts at 4:01 CDT, when the sun crosses the celestial equator moving north. Day and nights are approximately equal around the planet. The sun also rises due east and sets due west.
March 20 (a.m.) – Waning gibbous moon shines just to the right of Scorpius’ brightest star Antares this morning.
March 22 (a.m.) – Last quarter moon. Rises around 1 a.m. daylight time and stands due south around sunrise.
March 23 (a.m.) – Venus at inferior conjunction with the sun − transitions from the evening to the morning sky.
March 26-31 (a.m.) – Venus begins its climb from the dawn glare; becomes visible very low in the eastern sky about 45 minutes before sunrise.
March 29 – New Moon. The moon lies in the same direction as the sun and is invisible in the daytime sky.
March 31 – Saturn returns to view at dawn very low in the eastern sky about an hour before sunrise. Challenging! Use binoculars.
Bob King is an amateur astronomer, author, and passionate educator. He served as a photographer and photo editor at the Duluth News Tribune for 39 years and taught at the UMD planetarium. Bob’s work had a great impact on Voyageurs National Park. To achieve International Dark Sky Park certification, the park was required to host dark sky education events. Through the Night Sky Explorer webinars, the Conservancy was able to fulfill this component and help secure the certification for Voyageurs National Park. We can’t thank Bob King enough for sharing his talents and knowledge with the Conservancy community to support dark sky preservation.
