Our Moon reaches perigee, (closest to Earth), for the second time this orbit, on Tuesday March 30th. For this perigee the 18-day old waning gibbous Moon will be at a distance of 28.24 Earth diameters, 223,880 miles (360,300 km) from the Earth.
On the date of the perigee Moon the 18-day old waning gibbous Moon will rise around 10 pm local time. The Moon is within the boundaries of Libra the Scales and on either side of the Moon are two stars with interesting sounding names. They are the stars Zubeneschamali and Zubenelgenubi. Despite these two stars belonging to the constellation Libra the Scales the translation of the star names mean “Northern Claw” (Zubeneschamali), and “Southern Claw” (Zubenelgenubi) of Scorpius the Scorpion.
Does our Moon actually go around the Earth as this graphic shows? From our perspective on the Earth the Moon appears to circle around the Earth. However, in reality, the Moon orbits the Sun together with the Earth*
*Click here to read my Scope on the Sky column “The Real Shape of the Moon’s Orbit”. (PDF)
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to go to bobs-spaces.
Saturday March 27th is the annual 
Saturday March 20th is an equinox day. While typically called the Vernal or Spring Equinox it is more globally appropriate to call this day the March Equinox as it is the start of Fall in the Southern Hemisphere. The official time for the equinox is 09:40 UT on the 20th which for my time zone is 5:40 am CDT. So for those in the northern hemisphere winter is ending and spring has ‘sprung’ (starts). From a geographical perspective we would describe the Sun as being over the Earth’s equator, and as this graphic shows there would be an equal amount of daylight and night on our planet as a result. 
Northern hemisphere spring, Astronomically speaking, is when the Sun reaches the celestial coordinates of 
The 6.6-day old waxing crescent Moon crosses the plane of the ecliptic moving south. This is known as the descending node, one of two intersections the Moon’s orbital path (dark green line) has with the ecliptic. 
Thursday March 11th the Sun in its apparent eastward motion along the ecliptic, moves out of the constellation Aquarius the Water Bearer and into the constellation of Pisces the Fishes. This is the true or actual position of the Sun as opposed to the pseudoscience of astrology which usually has the astrological Sun one constellation ahead or east from the Astronomical Sun’s position.
Wednesday March 10th the outer ringed planet Neptune will reach a point in its respective orbit where Neptune will be on the opposite side of the Sun as viewed from here on Earth. Neptune, or any of the other outer planets (Mars to Neptune), dwarf planets, or small solar system bodies beyond the Earth’s orbit, will all eventually reach this position on the opposite side of the Sun known as 
From our perspective the orbits of Mercury and Venus appear to move from one side of the Sun to the other – out to the left (east) from the Sun to eastern elongation, then reverse and move westward (inferior conjunction) between the Earth and the Sun to western elongation. From there the inner planet moves eastward going behind the Sun (superior conjunction) and eventually reappearing on the eastern side of the Sun for an eastern elongation. Repeat over and over – do not stop!
