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Daylight Savings Time begins at 2AM on Sunday, March 14, 2010. Set your clock ahead 1 hour before you go to bed Saturday night.
Spring arrives in the northern hemisphere
Best seen: n/a
The Vernal Equinox occurs at 1:32PM Central Daylight Time on March 20, 2010. This is the astronomical start of spring (even though the Earth's weather may or may not cooperate). This is actually the time when the Earth reaches a specific point in its orbit around the Sun - which is why it happens at the same physical time all around the world. Of course, this means that spring occurs at different clock times around the world, and depending on circumstances can actually occur the day before or after as determined the by calendar - but really, none of that matters. The astronomical definition of spring bears little resemblance to reality except that the Sun will rise due east and set due west on the date of the equinox - which means we get equal hours of day and night (hence equi-nox - "equal night").
You'll almost certainly hear stories about people balancing eggs on their end during the vernal equinox - and you really can! But you can also do it every other day of the year; it just takes more patience than people have on any other day of the year. Really, there is no special force or alignment or anything that happens on the date of the equinox - it's just that no one bothers to try it then. It's an urban legend that keeps coming back every year.
The real highlight of the equinox this year is that the beautiful Crescent Moon will be very close to the Pleiades star cluster in the evening sky, making a great sight for binoculars and a beautiful photo opportunity.
Mars still bright
Best seen: all month
Mars is past its January opposition, but is still bright in the evening sky. It is the brightest object in the sky around 9PM unless you count the moon. Its red colour is subtle, so don't expect a laser pointer dot in the sky; Mars is actually a salmon pink colour, and that is hard to see when it's coming from a single dot. Binoculars will help show the colour better.
A telescope will still reveal Mars' polar ice caps and some of its dark markings, but Mars is swinging away from us in its orbit and so the apparent size of the planet is shrinking. By the last week of March, Mars appears less than 10 arcseconds across – that's about 1/180th the size of the full moon. At that size, even a telescope is challenged to show much detail on the surface. The next time Mars will be close again is in March of 2112, so you'll have lots of time to plan!
Evening planetary pairing
Best seen: March 30, early evening
Venus becomes visible low in the west right after sunset, but it hugs the horizon and sets soon after the sun. It's so bright that it is usually easy to spot with the unaided eye as darkness falls. However, at the end of March, the elusive planet Mercury joins the scene. Mercury is much fainter and notoriously difficult to see, so it's worth seeking out a location away from city lights with a flat and treeless western horizon.
On March 30th, Mercury will appear to the right of and slightly lower than brilliant Venus. The two planets will remain side-by-side over the next week or so, although they get lower each night. The two will easily fit into the field of view of typical binoculars, which are a eat tool for spotting Mercury against the bright twilight sky. Get out right at sunset and start sweeping the sky as soon as the Sun has gone completely below the horizon. (This is a safety tip to avoid accidentally looking at the sun through binoculars - this is dangerous and can cause permanent eye damage.)
Saturn at opposition
Best seen: March 20 (but visible all month)
The giant planet Saturn reaches opposition this month, rising at sunset and staying visible all night until sunrise. This is also the time when the planet is near its closest to Earth, providing the largest view, but it also means that the planet stays low in the sky for the first few hours of darkness. Best wait until 10PM or so to drag out your telescope and take a look at Saturn's rings.
Almost any "real" telescope will show Saturn's rings if it can magnify about 25X. (Department store telescopes on flimsy mounts or with plastic lenses might not be up to the task, though.) Right now, the rings are still fairly close to edge-on to our line of sight, making them a bit harder to spot than in previous years, but they're still one of the most satisfying sights in amateur astronomy, one that you never get tired of looking at. Most telescopes will also show a tiny "star" nearby which is actually Titan, the solar system's largest moon. Scopes of 20cm (6") aperture or greater will probably also show some of the other brighter moons.
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