7+( 6287+(51 +(0,63+(5( IN MARCH

WHEN TO USE THIS CHART

0$5 $7 87 The chart accurately matches the sky on the dates and times shown. The sky is different at other times as stars crossing it set 0$5 $7 87 four minutes earlier each night. We’ve drawn the chart for 0$5 $7 87 latitude –35° south.

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The Gamma Normids, one of the few showers exclusive to the southern hemisphere, is visible from 25 February to 28 March. The radiant’s position is about halfway between the bend in Scorpius’s tail and Alpha Centauri. Its maximum occurs on 14 March. The shower will have gained a reasonable altitude by midnight, leaving around three hours of dark morning skies to observe. Although historically not a strong display, there are occasional bright yellow members known to leave trains.

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Venus and Mercury appear in the evening twilight moving together for the first half of March. Although Venus is at mag. –3.9, it remains difficult to see in the bright sky. Jupiter is rising in the early evening (21:30 EST mid-month) and is well

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One of the original constellations Argo Navis, the Ship Argo, is today broken up into Carina, Puppis and Vela. But the Bayer naming system still reflects the ancient ship constellation. Among these three modern constellations there is only one star called ‘Alpha’, ‘Beta’, ‘Gamma’ and so on. The alpha star resides in Carina, the second brightest in the sky, Canopus. It’s not only people from Down Under that appreciate its prominence – many robotic space probes use it as a key navigation star. placed in the morning sky, transiting just before dawn. Mars arrives just before midnight, followed by Saturn around 30 minutes later. Mars and Saturn begin the month with a separation of 17° but by the month’s end it’s less than 2°.