There will be a gorgeous full Moon on Tuesday 30 March and it will be yet another blue Moon.  The term 'blue Moon' can mean many things, but it has come to mean the second full Moon that occurs in a month.  

Since our full moons don't occur at exactly the same time as the full moons in the states (although the beautiful full Moon shines on all of us at the same time!) you can have some interesting disjunctions with news releases from the states.  February had a full Moon in the mainland because it happened for them on the 28th of February, but here on Guam we had no full Moon at all in February because our full Moon happened on the first of March.  And, the full Moon on Tuesday will be a 'blue Moon', the last one for a while.

Since there will be no Moon in our early evening sky during the last part of the week, it's a fine time to go stargazing but you won't have to worry about the Moon because the sky is full of bright planets and stars.  You can see four of the five visible planets this week.  Face west where the Sun disappeared and you'll see two bright stars close together as it begins to grow dark.  The astoundingly bright one is Venus and the dimmer one is Mercury.  Mercury will never quite catch Venus on this trip and they'll reach their closest point of approach next week.

If you look in the eastern sky on Monday night that almost full Moon will be quite close to Saturn, making it easy to find.  Mars is still quite bright and very red and he's almost overhead this week.  Find all four planets in your personal sky.

The sky is also full of bright stars.  This week you can see five of the sky’s ten brightest stars.  By this time next month, there will be an incredible eight of the ten brightest stars all in the sky at the same time.  The only place you can see this amazing sight is the equatorial tropics.

To prepare you for viewing this stellar marathon next month, let me tell you how to find the five bright stars that are in the sky right now.  Face west where the Sun disappeared and turn 90 degrees to your left.  You’ll be facing south and you’ll see two bright stars, one high in the sky, the other closer to the horizon.  The upper star is Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.  The lower one is Canopus, the second brightest star.  

The third brightest star won’t enter our early evening sky until late next month, but the fourth brightest star will be above the eastern horizon after 8:00 p.m. this week.  Just look for a bright orange-red star above the eastern horizon.  That’s Arcturus; the fourth brightest star.  The fifth brightest star isn’t a part of the eight star marathon, but it’s easy to find the sixth brightest star this week.  Just look north of Orion the Hunter and you’ll see Capella, the sixth brightest star.

Rigel, the seventh brightest star is easy to find because Rigel is Orion the Hunter’s right foot.  Procyon, the eighth brightest star is to the east of Orion and almost straight overhead at 7:30, one hour after sunset this week and it will be two fist-widths away from Mars.  The ninth brightest star isn’t in our spring skies and the tenth brightest star will join the bright star marathon next month.  Keep reading the column and I’ll tell you all about it!
 

Would you like to be on the Planetarium e-mail list and receive a monthly reminder of the Planetarium shows and occasional notices of cool things in the sky?  Just send an e-mail to stars@guam.net requesting that you be added and I'll put you on the list!

Don't forget that you can hear this information on Guam's public radio station KPRG, 89.3 on your radio dial.  The program is called Tropical Skies and it airs twice on Monday, during the noon hour at 12:25 and at 6:01 in the evening.  Support your public radio station

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