PLANETS IN MARCH

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28833, 2 March 1959, Page 14

PLANETS IN MARCH

(Written tor Tne Press" Up K. W ROTH) The visibility ot Venus, the evening star, increases very slowly, from just under one hour to one hour twelve minutes. However, the intrinsic brightness of this beautiful star is so great that even at its present unfavourable, low position it. catches the eye. It is very low near the west-north-western horizon, always tq the right of where the sunset occurred. Amateur observers with a small telescope observe Venus best in full daylight, provided the sky is clear. Even to the naked eye Venus appears surprisingly bright in full daylight. It is quite easily seen in the early hours

of the afternoon, provided one looks in the right direction. The fine crescent of the new moon on March 12 should help to locate Venus on that date. Venus will be immediately below the moon

at noon, at an elevation of 30 degrees and a ’ bearing of 42 degrees east of due north.Mars passes well below Aldebaran, the main star of the Bull’s head, during the first week of this month. The two appear equally bright at present, Mars being slightly more red in colour. By the end of this month Mars is already a long way to the right of Aldebaran, while its apparent separation from Venus steadily diminishes. Mars is already so far away from us that no more surface details can' be made out of itr -dise, when it is observed through a small telescope.

Jupiter appears late in the evening in the eastern sky as the brightest star of the sky. Its time of rising advances from 10.35 p.m. on March 1 to 8.40 pun. on March 31. about four minutes from night to night It is very conspicuously placed just in the front line -of bright stars of Scorpius, one of the most prominent and richest populated constellation of the southern sky. Saturn comes Up two and a quarter hours after Jupiter, rising in east-south-east at 12.50 aun. on March 1 and at 10.55 p.m. on March 31.

Uranus, though too faint to be detected with the naked eye, should be a good test object for an amateur's telescope. Its disc appears half the diameter of that of Mars, about four seconds of arc. It is at present in a place where no star brighter than Uranus is found. It passes exactly due north, at an elevation of just under 29 degrees, at 10.58 p.m. on March 1 and four minutes earlier every following night!