In the Sky This Month

Aldebaran, the brightest star of Taurus, is to the upper left of the Moon at nightfall. The aging, bloated star represents the bull’s eye. A V-shaped pattern below the eye forms the rest of the bull’s face.

Cepheus, the king, is low in the north on March evenings. The constellation’s brightest stars form an outline that resembles a child’s drawing of a house.

Mars is easy to spot the next couple of evenings. It is in the west at nightfall and looks like a fairly bright orange star. It will stand well above the Moon tonight, and closer to the Moon tomorrow night.

The two brightest stars in the night sky line up in the south early this evening for skywatchers from about Dallas or Los Angeles southward. The brighter star is Sirius, with Canopus, which is well below Sirius, just above the southern horizon.

The Big Dipper is in the northeast in mid-evening. Through a good telescope, you can spot a small object near the outside corner of the bowl: the Owl Nebula. It looks like a small disk with a few dark smudges that resembles the face of an owl.

The heart of the Milky Way galaxy is above the “spout” of the teapot formed by the stars of Sagittarius, which is low in the southeast at first light. The brilliant planet Jupiter is passing in front of the core.

A pale pyramid of light sometimes rises from the western horizon on moonless March evenings. It’s called the zodiacal light because it is found in the zodiac. This glow is caused by sunlight reflecting off microscopic dust grains in space.

The Moon is “new” tomorrow morning as it crosses the line between Earth and Sun. It appears so close to the Sun that it’s hidden in the Sun’s glare. It should return to view by Wednesday evening as a thin crescent low in the west.

The Orion Nebula is visible in the south as night falls. It looks like a fuzzy star below Orion’s Belt. Binoculars will reveal the Trapezium, a cluster of brilliant young stars near the center of the nebula.

Two jewels of the Milky Way stand high in the northwest this evening — a pair of star clusters known as the Double Cluster. They represent the jeweled handle of the sword of Perseus. Under dark skies, the clusters are easily visible to the unaided eye.