There is a quickening as we near the Vernal Equinox and the beginning of spring on March 20. We now have twelve hours of sunlight, three more than we had back on the Winter Solstice. Sunrises are an hour and a half earlier and sunsets are an hour and a half later. And you may be noticing that there are three more minutes of sunlight every day in March. Even the sunrises and sunsets are speeding up. Back on the solstice, it took three and a half minutes for the disk of the Sun to disappear below the horizon. On the equinox, there is just three minutes from when the Sun first touches the horizon until it disappears from view.
March begins with a beautiful sight in the western sky soon after sunset. On March 1, Jupiter and Venus will be brilliant and side by side just a Moon’s width apart. Venus is much brighter and on the right. There’s plenty of time to see them in the twilight sky before they set around 8:30pm. They only appear close together because of where they are in their orbits. Watch the rest of the month as they slowly drift apart with Jupiter moving closer to the Sun and becoming more challenging to see. A Crescent Moon passes by Jupiter and Venus on March 23 and 24. On March 26-28, you may be able to glimpse Mercury passing by to the right of Jupiter low in the west after sunset. On March 27 and 28, the Moon is waxing to First Quarter as it passes by reddish Mars high in the south at twilight.
Spring arrives on March 20 at 4:26pm (CDT). You can see the last sunset of winter Sunday evening around 7:10 pm. The first sunrise of spring is Tuesday morning around 7:00 am. Hope you enjoy the quickening!
John Heasley is an astronomy educator and stargazer who enjoys connecting people with the cosmos. He volunteers with NASA/JPL as a Solar System Ambassador , with the International Dark-Sky Association as an Advocate, and the International Astronomical Union as a Dark Sky Ambassador. For more information about stargazing in southwest WI, like Driftless Stargazing LLC on Facebook and find out whenever there’s something awesome happening in the skies.
Learning to See
“What do you see?” I remember that as the opening line of John Logan’s play Red performed at Forward Theater in Madison last year. It’s the question that the artist Mark Rothko asks of his new assistant Ken. Maybe to test him. Maybe to train him. It caught my...
Getting ready for winter and the holidays in Driftless Wisconsin
“Hey John, how ya doing?” I asked a friend we met along the hiking trail out at the park. “I just bought my LP gas for 60 cents cheaper than last year,” he offered. In these parts, “how you doing?” means how are things stacking up for the winter. As in firewood, LP...
The change of seasons in Driftless Wisconsin
Fall is my favorite time of year. Yes, the days do get shorter, yet the fall color and cooler weather make a body feel alive. And there’s no better place to feel the invigorating change of seasons than Driftless Wisconsin. The fall colors beg to be painted,...