The Sky This Week - Thursday March 9 to Thursday March 16

The Full Moon is Monday March 13.  Venus is lost in the twilight. Mars is low in the twilight. Jupiter and the bright star Spica are close in the late evening skies. The Moon forms a line with Jupiter and Spica on March 14. Saturn is high in the morning sky.

The Full Moon is Monday March 13.

Evening sky on Saturday March 11 looking west as seen from Adelaide at 20:33 ACDST (60 minutes after sunset). Mars is low above the horizon.

 Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (that is 60 minutes after local sunset, click to embiggen).

Venus  is now lost in the twilight.

Mars is in the western evening skies in  Pisces. It is is low in the dusk sky, but is the brightest object above the western horizon low in the late twilight.

Late evening sky on Tuesday March 14looking east as seen from Adelaide at 23:00 ACDST.  Jupiter is now well above the horizon close to the bright star Spica. The inset shows the telescopic view of Jupiter at 23:00 pm as Europa is about reappear from occultation. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. (click to embiggen).

Jupiter is rising well before midnight and is now reasonably high above the horizon in the late evening this week. It is close to the bright star Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo. On the 14th Jupiter is between the waning Moon and Spica, making a nice sight.

Jupiter is a good telescopic target from around midnight on, and the dance of its Moons is visible even in binoculars. The following Jupiter events are in AEDST.

Thu 9 Mar 4:11 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian
Thu 9 Mar 22:07 Io : Shadow Transit Ends T
Thu 9 Mar 22:45 Io : Transit Ends
Fri 10 Mar 0:02 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian
Sat 11 Mar 5:49 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian
Sat 11 Mar 6:21 Eur: Disappears into Eclipse
Sun 12 Mar 1:40 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian
Sun 12 Mar 21:31 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian
Mon 13 Mar 0:30 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins S
Mon 13 Mar 1:47 Eur: Transit Begins ST
Mon 13 Mar 2:59 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends T
Mon 13 Mar 4:07 Eur: Transit Ends
Tue 14 Mar 3:18 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian
Tue 14 Mar 3:45 Gan: Disappears into Eclipse
Tue 14 Mar 5:59 Io : Disappears into Eclipse
Tue 14 Mar 6:13 Gan: Reappears from Eclipse
Tue 14 Mar 6:21 Gan: Disappears into Occultation
Tue 14 Mar 23:09 Eur: Reappears from Occultation
Tue 14 Mar 23:09 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian
Wed 15 Mar 3:20 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S
Wed 15 Mar 3:54 Io : Transit Begins ST
Wed 15 Mar 5:32 Io : Shadow Transit Ends T
Wed 15 Mar 6:04 Io : Transit Ends
Thu 16 Mar 0:28 Io : Disappears into Eclipse
Thu 16 Mar 3:11 Io : Reappears from Occultation
Thu 16 Mar 4:56 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian
Thu 16 Mar 21:48 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S
Thu 16 Mar 22:20 Io : Transit Begins ST

Morning  sky on Saturday February 25 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 5:46 ACDST (90 minutes before sunrise). Saturn is high above the horizon.

The inset shows the telescopic view of Saturn at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise). (click to embiggen).

 Saturn rises higher in darker morning skies this week. Saturn is now high enough above eastern horizon to see easily and is now a good telescopic target. It continues to climb into darker skies as the week progresses. It is within binocular distance of the Triffid and Lagoon nebula, which makes for nice viewing.

The constellation of Scorpio is a good guide to locating Saturn. The distinctive curl of Scorpio is easy to see above the eastern horizon, locate the bright red star, Antares, and the look below that towards the horizon, the next bright object is Saturn.

Mercury is  lost in the twilight.

There are lots of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. If you don’t have a telescope, now is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what’s up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.
Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

Source: http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-sky-this-week-thursday-march-9-to.html