The Moon
The Moon In March
The moon is brightening towards full on the third as March begins. But with sunset still early in the evening, we quickly lose the lunar glare and by the end of the first week, we’re able to enjoy at least a couple of hours of dark sky.
Last quarter falls on the 11th and fully dark nights last until about the 20th, when the new moon’s crescent grows large enough to have an impact. First quarter is a great time to view the lunar surface and this happens on 25 March.
March’s final week sees the moon continue to wax towards its next full phase, which is on the first day of April.
Moon Name
March’s full moon is known as the Worm Moon, and we’ll see it on the night of Tuesday, 03rd March.
We might think of it signifying the start of spring and worms coming reappearing out of the thawing ground. In fact, the name comes from an observation made in a 1760’s edition of the Old Farmer’s Almanac, where Captain Jonathan Carver was visiting North American tribes noted the appearance of beetle larvae as tree bark thawed. However, he referred to them as ‘worms’ and the name stuck.
Viewing Summary
| Dark Evenings | Dark Mornings | Dark Night | Evening Moon | Morning Moon |
| 8-19 | 13-23 | 10-20 | 1-5, 21-31 | 2-8, 27-31 |
Moon Phases, Rise & Set Times
Whether you are planning to observe the moon, or you want to make sure to avoid it, use the table below to discover when the moon will be above the horizon this month. The ‘Illumination’ column shows how bright it is going to be – the higher the %, the brighter the moon.
Moon Table Notes
- A=Apogee (furthest approach), P=Perigee (closest approach), FQ=First Quarter, LQ=Last Quarter
- All times are for Kansas City (DST). However, these times will be approximately accurate for your local time zone wherever you are in the northern hemisphere. For example, if you live in London, UK, the moonrise and set times will be no more than an hour different from those shown in the table above.
- There are two moonrise columns in the table, this is because each day is timed from midnight to midnight. On some days in the month the moon is already in the sky at midnight, therefore it sets first before rising again later in the day. On other days, the moon is below the horizon at midnight. On those days it rises first before setting later in the day.
- The data in the table comes from timeanddate.com
Visualization Of The Moon’s Impact
The following chart shows a visualisation of when the moon is above the horizon and below. This should make it easier for you to plan which nights offer the darkest skies and which provide the best opportunity for observing the moon itself.
First & Last Quarter Moon Locations
The two pictures below, from SkySafari 6, show the last and first quarter moons available to us in March.
We’ll see it reach last quarter on 11 March, when the moon will be passing through Ophiuchus. Last quarter is always best viewed in the evening, when the moon is higher in the sky. The image below shows the moon’s location at 4:40 am when it will be 12° over the southern horizon.
First quarter, which is better for lunar gazers outside in the morning, happens on the 25th of March. The second star chart below reveals that the moon is in Gemini that night and 70° above the southeastern horizon at 9:00 pm.
Click on the pictures for full screen versions.
