The following evening, the Moon hangs 6° below Venus in another lovely pairing.

Look low in the west on March 22 for Jupiter and a crescent Moon, less than 2° apart. By midmonth, it crosses into Aries the Ram. Venus, on the other hand, continues to climb and extends its angular separation from our star. Jupiter continues to fall toward the Sun, so to speak, as it heads for conjunction later in the spring. After March 1, the nightly view shows the pair of planets separating. Set against the faint constellation Pisces the Fish, there are no other bright stars in this region of the sky. Even at this huge distance, Jupiter sports a larger diameter of 34″, conveying its true dominant size in our solar system. (One astronomical unit, or AU, is the average Earth-Sun distance.) Jupiter, on the other hand, is nearly five times farther, 5.78 AU (537 million miles) away. Venus lies 1.37 astronomical units (127 million miles) from Earth. PST for West Coast observers, long after the planet has set for the eastern half of the country. Jupiter is attended by its three of its four Galilean moons Europa is hidden behind the giant in the early evening and even when it’s clear of the limb, it remains within Jupiter’s vast shadow. Venus, an Earth-sized planet, reveals an 86-percent-lit disk spanning 12″. Use low magnification and aim for about a 1° field of view to see both planets together. Try your first view in twilight before the dazzling brightness of Venus overwhelms easy observation of its disk. The contrast of this planetary duo is stunning.

That formal moment of conjunction occurs the morning of March 2, well after the pair has set in the U.S. is slightly before the true conjunction, which takes place when the giant planet is due north of Venus. After Venus pops into view in the falling twilight, how long does it take you to spot Jupiter, just 30′ to its southeast? The evening of March 1 in the U.S. As the month opens, Venus is about 30° high in the west. First up is Venus, visible even before sunset if you look carefully. Let’s tour each planet from sunset to dawn throughout the month.

Hung t trine astrology