March is a great month for planets. Mars peaks in brightness, and Venus and Jupiter are in conjunction in the middle of the month. Saturn shines in the early morning sky and Mercury shines at dusk for the early part of the month.

The "conjunction of the year" occurs in mid-March, as Venus and Jupiter appear to draw close to each other in the western evening sky. While such conjunctions are not rare, this conjunction occurs when Venus is high in the western evening sky. This helps make this a particularly visible and striking gathering of the night sky’s two brightest points of light.

On Thursday, look west (where the sun sets) from 7 p.m. onward, when it gets dark enough to see the brightest stars and planets. Venus is about a third of the way up in the west. Venus has a whitish-yellow color and shines at minus 4.2 magnitude. Look for Jupiter about 9 degrees above Venus, or roughly the width of your palm held at arm’s length. Jupiter shines at minus 2.1 magnitude, six times dimmer than Venus but several times brighter than even the brightest star. Venus sets around 9:45 p.m. in early March and Jupiter sets around 10:30 p.m.

Night by night in early March, Venus and Jupiter seem to draw together. Each night in the first nine days of the month, the two planets will appear about 1 degree closer than the night before. By March 10, Venus and Jupiter will be less than 4.5 degrees apart.

From March 10 to 15, these two planets will be around 3 degrees apart in the evening sky, or less than the width of two fingers held at arm’s length. From March 10 to 12, look for Jupiter to the left of and slightly above Venus.

On March 13, the two planets will be exactly side by side, with Venus on the right. On March 14 and 15, the two planets will still appear close, but now Jupiter will be below Venus.

From March 10 to 15, the two planets set in the west shortly before 10 p.m.

For the rest of the month, Jupiter will be a little lower each night at dusk and a little farther below Venus. Look for the early crescent moon between the two planets on March 25. On March 26, look for the moon between Venus and the star cluster called the Pleiades (Makali’i).

On March 27, Venus is at its greatest elongation from the sun, 46 degrees. This means that at sunset Venus is about 46 degrees above the place where the sun set, or halfway up in the western sky. Venus sets just after 10 p.m. here in late March; Jupiter sets about an hour earlier.

Mars puts on a show from dusk until dawn. Throughout the month, you can see Jupiter and Venus in the west from dusk until about 9:45 p.m., and then be able to look east to see the red planet rising there.

Mars reaches opposition on March 3, which means the sun and Mars are on opposite sides of Earth. So as the sun sets in the west, Mars rises in the east. Mars is overhead at midnight when the sun is below our feet, and the red planet sets in the west as the sun rises in the east at dawn.

During opposition, Mars is closer to us than at any other time in its orbit; on the night of March 3, the red planet is about 63 million miles away. By comparison, when Mars returned to the morning sky back in April, it was more than 215 million miles from Earth, or well over three times farther away.

Since Mars is closer in early March than any other time in the past two years, it is also brighter than at any time in that time frame. In early March it shines at minus 1.23 magnitude, brighter than any star except Sirius (though still several times dimmer than Jupiter and 15 times dimmer than Venus). In early March, look for Mars just rising above the eastern horizon at 7:30 p.m., overhead at midnight, and setting at dawn. As the month goes on, Mars will be a little higher in the east at dusk; by the end of March, Mars will be nearly halfway up in the east as it gets dark, high overhead about 10:30 p.m., and will set at 4:45 a.m.

Look for the full moon next to Mars on the night of March 7-8.

For the first 10 days of March, you can also catch Mercury low in the west at dusk. Look for Mercury at around 7:15 p.m. during those first 10 days; Mercury is about 7 degrees above the west horizon, or less than the width of three fingers at arm’s length. Mercury sets around 7:40 p.m. At the start of the month you’ll have an easier time finding it, since it shines at a bright minus 0.7 magnitude; by the 10th it fades to 1st magnitude. After that, Mercury is lost in the sunset glow.

The last planet to appear in the parade is Saturn, rising in the east at 10 p.m. at the start of March and just before 8 p.m. by the end of March. Throughout the month Saturn lies about 6 degrees from Spica, the bright star in Virgo. At magnitude 0.4 Saturn is about 75 percent brighter than Spica. Saturn has a slight yellow-white color, while Spica is whitish-blue.

Saturn is higher in the south at 3:30 a.m. in early March and is about halfway down the western sky at daybreak. By the end of the month, Saturn is high in the south at 1:30 p.m. and is low in the east by daybreak. Look for the waning gibbous moon next to Saturn and Spica on the night of March 9-10.

Mike Shanahan is director of Education, Exhibits and Planetarium. For more information, go to www.bishopmuseum.org/planetarium/planetarium.html.