Heather Ainsley
reporter3.riverbendnews@gmail.com
2025 is shaping up to be a pretty active, astronomically speaking, with January and February a planetary parade, several different planetary and lunar conjunctions, a massive and beautiful “snow moon” and the beginning of the Gamma Normids meteor shower. With February over, here are a few exciting events North Florida residents can keep an eye out for this March.
March will see a continuation of the Gamma Normids, but this is considered to be a weak meteor shower that is mostly visible from the Southern Hemisphere, so visibility for our region is not expected to be high.
What is expected to be visible is a complete lunar eclipse. The moon will travel through Earth's shadow, which will cause the moon to be darkened. This will give the moon a red or orange-ish hue – the more clouds or dust in Earth's atmosphere during the eclipse, the more red the moon will seem. This will be visible for one night starting tomorrow, Thursday, March 13, and bleeding out to Friday, March 14. It will begin just a few minutes before midnight, and will be visible until just before 5 a.m.
Although the Planetary Parade is largely over, several of the planets will be visible this month. Venus will continue to shine brightly, and will be joined by Mercury just at dusk. Venus will shift position steadily through the month to eventually become more visible in the early morning sky rather than at twilight. Jupiter and Mars will be visible later in the evenings, most easily seen well after nightfall. Jupiter will dim by the end of the month. Mars will be seen high in the eastern sky, and will have a red appearance. As our planet shifts farther from our planetary neighbors, the brightness with which they are seen will diminish throughout the month.
While this month is not a great month for shooting stars, you may be able to witness another celestial feature called “the zodiacal light.” This will be most visible during the last two weeks of the month, when the light from the moon is less likely to interfere. Zodiacal light is a faint glow of sunlight that has been scattered by interplanetary dust. It will appear to be a faint glow in a cone shape that moves along the zodiac constellations from the horizon. This phenomenon is created by light from the sun as it hits small particles of dust and debris that was left behind in our inner solar system by comets that passed a long time ago. For best viewing, observe in an area with as little light pollution as possible, and scan the western horizon for an arching cone of faint light.
Thursday, March 20 marks the Spring Equinox, where there is almost equal amounts of day and night throughout the world. Fun fact: while this marks our spring equinox (vernal equinox) and the first day of spring for us, in the Southern Hemisphere it marks the autumn equinox (autumnal equinox) and the first day of fall for them.
While March is not a particularly active celestial month, there is still much to keep an eye out for. For those who happen to catch any of these events on camera, particularly the lunar eclipse, you can send your photos to Reporter3.riverbendnews@gmail.com. Clear photos may be published in future paper publications.