Star map for the first week of March.

Stargazing over Butler is a bit of a trade-off this month.

The bad news is that sunsets in March are progressively later, and daylight saving time kicks in. The good news is that it’s not as cold.

The really good news though is that the great evening winter constellations are still available, although they’re beginning to head to the western exits.

Popping out of the evening twilight in the fairly low western skies will be Venus. It’s so very bright you might even think it’s an airplane at first. Venus is so brilliant because it’s fairly close to Earth, but even more important, its complete and thick cloud cover is very reflective of the sun’s light. Because of the cloud cover and the glare, it’s not much of a telescope target, although you can’t help but notice it’s shaped like a tiny crescent moon this month. That’s because its orbit around the sun lies inside the Earth’s orbit, and because of that, it goes through phases just like the moon.

A little below Venus early this month, look for Mercury in the very low western sky, not far from the horizon. Start looking for it even before twilight ends because it slips below the horizon shortly afterward. Mercury’s not nearly as bright as Venus but it’ll be the next brightest starlike object in that neighborhood.

Through the first half of March, Venus and Mercury will be fairly close to each other as twilight tapers but will also start out the evenings closer and closer to the western horizon. By late March, Venus and Mercury will shift to the low early morning eastern sky, rising during morning twilight.

The big story this March is the full moon on the night of March 13 to 14 because it’ll become a Blood Moon as we’ll have a lunar eclipse. It’s the first lunar eclipse in over two years as the moon crosses into Earth’s ruddy shadow. I’ll have much more on the upcoming Blood Moon in next week’s Starwatch column.

Orion and the rest of the wonderful winter constellations are still performing in the evening southern sky. This will be the last full month though, that you’ll really be able to enjoy this close-knit group of bright stars. As Earth continues its orbit of the sun, the nighttime side of Earth will gradually turn away from that part of space.

Riding along this year, among the winter constellations are Jupiter and Mars. Jupiter is the brighter of the two by far and is also the brightest starlike object among the winter shiners. It’s perched just to the upper right of Orion.

With even a small telescope, you can see up to four of Jupiter's biggest moons change positions on either side of the planet from night to night as they orbit the big guy of our solar system.

Mars is to the upper left of Orion, right between the Twins in the constellation Gemini. Mars is more of a telescope challenge though, although with a dark enough and transparent enough sky, you may see murky images of some surface features, including the northern polar cap.

In the northern sky, the Big Dipper is standing up on its handle. The fainter Little Dipper is off to the left, hanging by its handle. The bright star Polaris, otherwise known as the North Star, shines at the end of the Little Dipper’s handle. Polaris shines directly above the Earth’s terrestrial North Pole, so all of the stars in the northern hemisphere appear to circle the North Star every 24 hours in response to the Earth’s rotation.

Spring begins on March 20, at least astronomically. It’s also referred to as the Vernal Equinox — when all around the globe, days and nights are nearly equal in length, about twelve hours each. Anywhere along Earth’s equator, the sun will be directly overhead at noon.

From this point on, the northern hemisphere receives more sunlight each day, increasing the hours of daylight until the summer solstice, June 21. The bad news for us stargazers is that we have to wait later and later for true nightfall.

One of the great constellations of spring is rising in the evenings in the east. It’s Leo the Lion. Look for a distinctive backward question mark that outlines the chest and head of Leo. Regulus is the moderately bright star at the bottom of the question mark that marks Leo’s heart. As March continues, Leo will appear higher and higher in the sky as nightfall sets in.

Enjoy the star-filled and warmer nights of March!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is also the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.