SATURN: The ringed world is getting closer to Porrima (Gamma Virginis) this month. The planet will be closest (just 15’ 24”) from Porrima on June 9th.
NEPTUNE: Shines at magnitude 8 in the constellation Aquarius. Neptune turns retrograde from June 3rd.
URANUS: Uranus in Pisces shines at magnitude 5.87. Uranus is at Western Quadrature on June 26th.
JUPITER: Will rise around 3:40am during the month’s beginning. The planet will climb up well in the eastern pre-dawn sky for observers. Jupiter will be 5.5 degrees of the Crescent Moon on June 26th.
MARS: Will remain low in the eastern pre-dawn sky. Mars will be paired with Pleiades, being within 5 degrees, during 16th to 22nd June. Mars is within just 3.5 degrees of a Crescent Moon on June 29th.
VENUS: Is the brightest star of dawn this month. From June 6th to 10th, it will be paired with Pleiades very low in the East. On June 30th Venus will be within 3 degrees of a Waning Crescent Moon very low in the east near the horizon just before dawn.
URANUS: Very low in West. The planet will be on conjunction on 21st March.
JUPITER: Getting low in the Western sky and will be paired with Mercury from March 12 to March 20.
SATURN: Rises around 9:30 pm at the month’s beginning and well placed in the sky at the time of midnight. The planet will show 19 arc seconds wide disc during March.
VENUS: The brightest planet will be just 1 degree from the Moon on the morning of 1st March.It will be nicely paired with the Crescent Moon on the morning of 1stMarch and will be just 10’ apart from Neptune on the morning of 27th March.
NEPTUNE: Will emerge from the eastern morning sky by March 8. It will be very close to brilliant Venus on 27th March.
MERCURY: Will climb up in the Western evening sky around 8-9 March. The inner-most planet will be just 21’ from Uranus on the evening of 9th March but very low near the Western horizon. The planet will be paired with Jupiter during mid-March and will be at Greatest Elongation on 23rd March.
March 5: New Moon
March 5/6: A day for the Messier Marathon. Locate all the Messier Objects in one night!
March 7: A very thin Waxing Crescent Moon (6% illuminated) is 8.5 degrees NE of Jupiter, very low in the West Just after Sunset
March 11: A six days old Waxing Crescent Moon is just 4.5 degrees SE of Pleiades at the time of evening
March 13: First Quarter Moon
March 15: See Mercury and Jupiter just 2 degrees apart! The pair is very low in the West around 7:30pm
March 17: The Moon within 6 degrees of Regulus
March 19: Full Moon
March 20: See The Moon paired with Saturn in the East around 8:30pm. They are nearly 7.5 degrees apart.
March 21: Uranus Conjunction
March 21: See The Moon 5.5 degrees E-SE of Spica in the East before mid-night
March 23: Mercury Greatest Eastern Elongation
March 25: The Moon within 6.5 degrees of Antares before dawn
March 26: Last Quarter Moon
March 27: Use telescopes to reveal tiny Neptune (mag just 10’ from brilliant Venus in the Eastern sky before dawn!
March 31: A Waning Crescent Moon (11% illuminated) is just 5.5 degrees from Venus at the time of dawn
Jupiter has lost one of its prominent stripes, leaving its southern half looking unusually blank. Scientists are not sure what triggered the disappearance of the band.Jupiter's appearance is usually dominated by two dark bands in its atmosphere – one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere.But recent images taken by amateur astronomers show that the southern band – called the south equatorial belt – has disappeared.The band was present at the end of 2009, right before Jupiter moved too close to the sun in the sky to be observed from Earth. When the planet emerged from the sun's glare again in early April, its south equatorial belt was nowhere to be seen.
This is not the first time the south equatorial belt has disappeared. It was absent in 1973 when NASA's spacecraft took the first closeup images of the planet and also temporarily vanished in the early 1990s.The bands may normally appear dark simply because pale, high-altitude clouds prevalent in other regions of the planet are missing there, revealing darker clouds below.
The belts are composed of ammonia ice, with a little sulfur and phosphorus thrown in. Scientists aren't quite sure how to account for them - one theory is that they are simply gaps in higher, paler clouds that allow the darker, deeper levels to show through.
It's not the first time the belt has disappeared - indeed, it happens every three to fifteen years. it last went missing in the early 1990s, and before that in 1973.This time, though, the disappearance happened as the planet spent a three-month period behind the sun, so that on its emergence the transformation appears rather more sudden.Over the next few months, we can expect to see a white spot appear which will gradually get stretched out by the planet's 350mph winds to form a new SEB.
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just 10’ from brilliant Venus in the Eastern sky before dawn!