The March sky lights up both morning and night

March makes up for a long winter with the spring equinox and planet shows in both the morning and evening skies.

Starting off the month is Venus, blazing away as bright as an evening star in the west. Soon after, around the 4th, just after sundown, it is a chance to see Uranus. It will appear as a blue dot the size of about half a moon, according to the Washington Post.

Mars will be lingering just below Venus, but only visible through a set of binoculars. As for Jupiter, check out the east and south as you will see it outshining the brightest of them all. And following Jupiter across the sky are stars Leo, led by the backwards question mark called the Sickle, which outlines the lion’s head and is anchored by bright Regulus. And don’t forget about the triangle of stars marking the hindquarters and tail.

On the night of the 5th keep an eye out for March’s full worm moon, named for the appearance of earthworms in the softening earth. This moon is also called the sap moon for the running of the maple sap. It is the smallest full moon of 2015, thanks to falling on the same day that it reaches apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its monthly orbit.

On March 6, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is due to meet up with Ceres, a dwarf planet like Pluto. Named for the Roman goddess of agriculture and fertility, Ceres is the largest object orbiting in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Do not miss out on the vernal equinox, when the Earth is lighted from pole to pole and the northern spring begins on the evening of the 20th. During this time, the sun and its warmth move rapidly north, stirring up the famous March winds. Also during March, we see this movement in the changes of day length when we gain approximately three minutes of daylight per day, the maximum of the year.

And of course, March brings daylight saving time at 2 a.m. on Sunday, the 8th. Clocks should be set one hour forward.

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