"What's Up" From NASA and JPL for the Month of March, 2026
March 2026 brings us a total lunar eclipse; Venus and Saturn in conjunction and the vernal (Spring) equinox arrives.
Early in the Montth - The Planets
Saturn and Venus:
Our ringed planet Saturn and our "sister planet" Venus cozy up for a conjunction on the 8th. The pair will be about a degree apart in the sky - about the width of your finger held up at arms length. If you can visualize two full Moons, side by side, that width is also roughly a degree. Although the two bright planets appear close together in the sky, they are actually nearly a billion miles apart! The best time to see this conjunction is shortly after sunset, looking low towards the western horizon.
Skywatching Highlights from March's episode.
The March Full Blood Moon and a full lunar eclips occurs on the 3rd.
During the early morning hours on the 3rd, Earth's shadow will creep across the face of the Moon, causing a total lunar eclipse. Earth actually casts two shadows - the penumbra and the umbra. The penumbra is a fainter shadow on either side of the main shadow, while that main, umbra shadow is much darker. Look for the Moon to first enter the fainter penumbra, then note when the darker umbra begins to darken the Moon's face. At totality, the Moon turns a "blood red" due to sunlight being scattered by Earth's atmosphere. The eclipse then reverses course as the umbra begins to leave, exposing the Moon to the penumbral shadow on the other side. Finally, the second penumbral shadow leaves the Moon's face and we're back to our normal view of our satellite.
The Vernal Equinox
On March 20, the Winter season ends and we cellebrate the beginning of Spring here in the northern Hemisphere. Down south of the equator, those folks are heralding the end of Summer and the beginning of Fall. On that day, the Sun crosses over the Earth's equator, moving from south to north. At that point we experience nearly equal amounts of daylight and nighttime - about 12 hours each.
Watch "What's Up" for March, 2026 graciously provided by the fine folks at NASA and JPL.