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     March 2025 says goodbye to Saturn, welcomes a total lunar eclipse, and continues hanging out with the rest of the planets

Hi everybody, I’m Rob, your Last Minute Astronomer, bringing astronomy to normies and nerds, with little time to spare.  

We’ll start by talking about this month’s big events, then highlight the naked eye planets, and finish up with the lunar phases, so you can plan ahead better than me.  

BIG EVENTS

14th - Total Lunar Eclipse -

1:09am EST – Partial Eclipse Begins 

2:26am EST – Totality Begins with maximum eclipse right before 3am.

3:32am EST – Totality ends, Partiality begins again

4:48am EST – Partial Eclipse Ends

Other things to look for

• As the Moon gets darker, more and more stars will be visible
• The Moon is right between Leo and Virgo - Virgo is usually tough to find, so take advantage of the darkened Moon.

20th – Spring Equinox - Astronomically the first day of Spring, even though meteorologically Spring starts in the beginning of March.  Here’s some more info. 

29th - Partial Solar Eclipse - Technically, this is happening, but it’ll be very hard to see even if you are in the NE US.  Northern Europe has the best views.

Naked-eye PLANETS

Sunset - Venus (first 2 weeks), Mercury (first 2 weeks), Jupiter, Mars 

Middle of the night - Jupiter, Mars 

Morning - Maybe Venus (last week) 

LUNAR CYCLE

Evening Crescents (look West after Sunset)

First Quarter Moon – 6th (Visible until midnight)

Evening Gibbous (Mostly lit, after Sunset)

Full Moon – 14th (Visible all night)

Waning Gibbous (Mostly lit, rises later at night)

Last Quarter Moon – 22nd (Visible midnight into the morning)

Morning Crescents (look East in the AM)

New Moon – 29th (darkest skies)

LUNAR CLOSE ENCOUNTERS 

The Moon will be traveling across the sky as normal, passing by some planets at particular times. 

1st - 2nd - Mercury & Venus 

5th - 6th - Find the Waxing Crescent Moon right nearby Jupiter. To the right of Jupiter on the 5th, to the left and up on the 6th. 

8th - The Moon will start out the night just 2˚ from Mars, moving further away throughout the night, setting around 5am.

26th - Get out between 6:30am and 6:50am and see if you can see Venus coming out on the other side of the Sun.  Look East.  Venus will be super bright, but only a few degrees above the horizon.  The Moon will be similarly high, but about 45˚ to the right in the ESE.

And that’s the sky for this month! If you find this advance notice of the night sky helpful, please support this work by finding Last Minute Astronomer on Patreon, and don’t forget to follow Last Minute Astronomer on Facebook and Instagram. Till next month, I’m the Last Minute Astronomer wishing you fruitful plans and clear skies. Music was produced by Deep Sky Dude and used with permission.