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Shortly before sunrise, from the 15th to the 19th of March we will be able to attend a beautiful conjunction of the Moon with Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. To observe it, you have to look to the southeast at about 6 am.

At 6 in the morning

As we approach spring, the days continue to lengthen and now they do so quickly. At this time of year, each day we earn just over two and a half minutes in the dark; that's why you have to get up a little early if you want to observe the planets before dawn. If the sky is cloudless, the central days of March will present us with a conjunction that promises to be the most beautiful of the year.

Let's look up at the sky at sunrise on Sunday the 15th, at around 6am, about an hour and a half before the sun rises, when the sky begins to clear in the east. The Moon is in the phase of a waning crescent well high above the horizon. Below the Moon following the ecliptic line to the east, we can see Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in that order of decreasing elevation.

Jupiter and Saturn move slowly about their orbits, which will make them spend a good part of the year apparently close to each other in the same area of ​​the sky, until they reach their closest approach in December.

Mars, due to its greater proximity to the Sun and Earth, presents a faster movement and, in recent days, has been approaching Jupiter. The red planet, now very close to the gas giant, is now far away (about 1.6 times farther than the Sun from Earth) and shines discreetly, with magnitude 0.9.

The giant Jupiter, much brighter than Mars, now dominates the sky before dawn. Jupiter is now 6 times farther than the Sun from Earth and its magnitude is -2.

Finally, Saturn appears with a brightness similar to Mars, but much lower than Mars and Jupiter. If we extend the arm, Saturn's height above the horizon (about 5 degrees) is equivalent to the size of the thumb.

On Wednesday the 18th, the waning crescent moon will come to visit the couple made up of Mars and Jupiter. The three stars will be separated by a distance of a few degrees. On the 19th, the Moon, already very low on the horizon, will be close to Saturn.

We will be able to take advantage of these days to observe the delicate ashen light that makes the night part of the lunar disk shine slightly. It is the reflection of the sunlight that comes reflected from the Earth: the reflection of a reflection. As the days go by, Selene will gain in age, each day she will get up later and less illuminated until she reaches the novilunio that will take place on the 24th in Pisces.

Venus continues to dominate the sunsets

These days Venus shines very generously after twilight. If there are no clouds, we can see its intense glare between 8:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., as its height decreases to hide behind the western horizon.

The magnitude of Venus now reaches a value of -4.4; It is now some 120 million kilometers away from Earth, approximately 20% closer than the distance from the Sun to Earth.

Rafael Bachiller is an astronomer and director of the National Astronomical Observatory (IGN)

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