“What’s Up?”, updated 4 March 2026
Starting January 2026, this section will feature a monthly summary of what is happening in the skies above us. It will be updated during the first days of each month to include celestial events for that particular month.
One can access a map of the night sky for their location by going to stellarium.org and run the web version of the program. One can see what constellations are above the horizon on a given evening and how the sky changes appearance over the course of a single night as the Earth’s rotation, removes evening constellations from view while revealing other constellations.
A total lunar eclipse just happened. It was visible across much of the U.S. as well as Australia, Asia, and much of the Pacific. We were clouded out in southeast Texas, so did not get any images. Others elsewhere in the country and the world were more successful, and their pictures of the event can be found at this website. The next lunar eclipse of any kind visible from the Americas is a near-total eclipse on the evening of August 27th. Almost 93% of the Moon is swallowed by the Earth’s umbra at maximum eclipse. This is enough to reveal the reds and oranges that fill the umbral shadow (assuming no aerosols are injected into the atmosphere by large volcanoes before this time). The next total lunar eclipse visible from the US is on the evening of June 25, 2029, where the Moon is in the umbral shadow for nearly as long as it can possibly be (1 hour 42 minutes, just 5 minutes short of the theoretical maximum).
Having passed the Full Moon phase, the Moon is now in the waning gibbous phase, rising later and later with each passing evening. It passed from Leo into Virgo early this morning (4 March) and will be within a few degrees of Virgo’s brightest star, Spica, tonight. On the 8th and 9th, it glides through Libra before passing close by the fiery red heart of the Scorpion on 10 March, one day before Last Quarter.
Daylight continues to get longer and longer in the Northern Hemisphere as we approach astronomical spring. The Vernal Equinox occurs on March 20, when the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading north. Approximately one week prior, the length of time the Sun is above the horizon reaches, then exceeds 12 hours per day. This does not happen on the 20th itself, as one might expect, but prior to this date due to the refraction of Earth’s atmosphere lifting the Sun’s image higher in the sky when it is near the horizon. One can read more about this phenomenon at this website: https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/equinox-not-equal.html.
Currently there are two planets visible low in the western sky during evening twilight: Saturn and Venus. Mercury was present in late February but has since disappeared into the solar glare. Saturn is sinking lower and lower with each passing evening and passes within 1 degree of Venus on the evening of March 7th, as seen from the U.S. Venus shines at magnitude -3.9 while Saturn is more than 90 times dimmer at magnitude +1.0. Binoculars will be needed to best see the pair. On the 7th, Saturn is 1 degree to the upper left of Venus; one evening later it is to the lower left. Only days after this encounter, Saturn fades into the evening glow, being hidden by the Sun until late April, when it returns to the morning sky.
During the month of March, the stars and constellations of winter are prominent across the sky as darkness fall. As the evening progresses, they rotate westward, occupying the western half of the sky by mid-evening. At this time, Orion is prominent in the southwestern sky, with Canis Major and bright Sirius situated below and left of Orion. Leading Orion down is the zodiacal constellation Taurus the Bull, with the Pleiades out in front, getting lower in the western sky. The asterism known as the “Winter Hexagon” is high in the southwest. It starts with Rigel in the lower right corner of Orion, continues through Sirius before bending up to Procyon, then over to Capella high in the western sky. Then the asterism drops to Aldebaran in Taurus before returning to Rigel. This whole assembly gets lower in the western sky with each passing week and will soon become the “Spring Arch” as the lower part of the Hexagon drops below the horizon.
Jupiter is the bright white starlike object high in the eastern sky at nightfall. It is currently in the Gemini constellation and is situated south of the twin stars Pollux and Castor. Behind these objects are the constellation of spring, now visible along the eastern horizon in the early evening. These include Hydra, Leo, Ursa Major (with the Big Dipper) and Virgo. Later in the evening the bright “Spring Star”, Arcturus, rises to visibility in the east northeast.
After New Moon on 18 March, the Moon returns to the evening sky by the 19th as a very thin, ~24 hour old crescent below and right of Venus. Binoculars and a clear, flat horizon are essential to see it. The Moon is easier to see the next evening, being well above and right of Venus, and a bit thicker. On the 22nd, it is seen below and right of the Pleiades. One evening later, it makes a triangle with Aldebaran and the Pleiades. And the next evening, on 24 March, the Moon is less than a degree from beta Tauri, even covering it up for observers in the eastern Caribbean and the northern part of South America. After this, the Moon, at first quarter on the 25th, passes through Gemini, skirting north of Jupiter between the evenings of the 25th and 26th.
Observations of Solar and Lunar Eclipses and Other Observations
Images of the March 14, 2025 total lunar eclipse can be viewed here.
We observed two solar eclipses less than six months apart. Check out images from these celestial events at this site.
We observed and imaged the total lunar eclipsed that occurred during the predawn hours of 8 November 2022. The images and report can be viewed at https://www.pvamu.edu/pvso/cosmic-corner/total-lunar-eclipse-2022-1-2/. Partial lunar eclipse began at 3:09 am CST, total eclipse started at 4:16 am CST, maximum eclipse (when the Moon should appear darkest) at 4:59 am CST, total eclipse ended at 5:42 am CST, and partial eclipse finished at 6:49 am. The subtle penumbral shading was detectable some 30 to 40 minutes before and after the partial stages.
On 15 May 2022, a Total Lunar Eclipse, with totality lasting nearly 85 minutes, was visible across North and South America (except the far northwest part of North America). Partial eclipse began at 9:28 pm CDT (May 15), totality began at 10:29 pm, mid eclipse was 11:12 pm, total eclipse ended at 11:54 pm and partial eclipse ended at 12:56 pm, CDT (May 16). We did observe the event and got pictures, check out this website for these.
Observations of the partial phase of the May 2021 lunar eclipse (taken with smartphone and a University telescope), along with unfiltered, stacked galaxy and cluster images, can be viewed from the project update website https://www.pvamu.edu/pvso/cosmic-corner/project-summary-2/.
Jupiter was hit by a meteor in 2021, see https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/jupiter-whacked-again-japanese-astronomers-record-possible-impact/, for more information on what is the 11th confirmed observation of a fireball to burn up in its atmosphere. There was another event documented on 28 August 2023. You can read all about it at this website.
The Perseverance rover continues to perform wonderful feats of science, from finding evidence of a raging river, to making 10 g of pure oxygen from the Martian air to watching a small drone helicopter take its 51st flight over the Martian wasteland. For more information on it and other activity on Mars, visit mars.jpl.nasa.gov. Also, Curiosity has returned some beautiful sunset pictures of cirrus-like clouds in the Martian sky.
Solar observations are currently offline. One may view images during our Solar Cycle Observation Program (2020-2026) by visiting pvamu.edu/pvso.
The PVSO complex has 3 domes, including the existing “Classic” Solar Observatory, and two new domes. For updates on this progress check out https://www.pvamu.edu/pvso/cosmic-corner/project-summary-2/. Also, more information and images can be viewed at https://sites.google.com/view/saganti-astro/home. The two newer domes contain our Meade 16-inch advanced telescope (east dome, an Astrohaven clamshell-type dome) and a 0.6 meter (24-inch) PlaneWave Corrected Dall-Kirkham telescope (west dome, an Ash dome). The design features these two domes situated east and west of a visitor’s center, which is immediately north of the existing Solar Observatory.