EarthSky

Hi stargazers! #Venus and #Saturn are pairing up this week. They’ll be closest to each other on the evenings of March 7 and 8. Look for them in the bright western #twilight shortly after sunset. After March 8, Saturn will soon be lost in the sun’s glare. 🌌🪐🔭
buff.ly/uaBAzBo

📹 EarthSky.org.

Bluish-white planet with red around the edge. A large set of thin rings circles the planet.

For the 1st time ever, scientists have mapped the 3D structure of #Uranus’ upper atmosphere. Using the #JWST, they uncovered glowing auroras sculpted by Uranus’ oddly tilted but powerful magnetic field, and more. 🔭
buff.ly/SwQvA0w

📸 ESA/ Webb/ NASA/ CSA/ STScI.

Graph of Solar Cycle 25 showing sunspot numbers rising to a peak around 2024–2025, then declining, with February 2026 monthly value marked at 78.2.

After the #sun went 3 days without a single visible sunspot last month, we've been eager to find out February's sunspot number. NOAA announced today that February's sunspot number was the lowest we've seen following the Solar Cycle 25 peak in August 2024.

Read on: buff.ly/eV5YSbS

📸 NOAA.

Center of Milky Way showing reddish clouds with patches of white, against a black backdrop with stars.

See the heart of our #MilkyWay galaxy in a new radio image! This new radio telescope image features massive stars that orbit the supermassive #blackhole at our galaxy’s center. 🌌🔭

Read more and see more images and videos:
buff.ly/IQbia5K

📸 ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Longmore et al./D. Minniti et al.

Bright pink and green auroras in the background, and a little church in the foreground.

Now is a good time to see some #auroras! As we move into March, we are entering an aurora season. These periods of increased auroral activity occur twice a year, around the March and September #equinoxes. 🌎🔭

Why? It’s all about magnetism and geometry. Find out more:
buff.ly/j7SkkiD

📸 JD Smith.

Chart showing a round disk, the full moon, below a dot, Regulus. They are both above a wavy line, the eastern horizon.

Hi stargazers! Tonight, the full, recently eclipsed #moon will lie between the bright star #Regulus and the horizon. They’ll be visible through sunrise tomorrow morning. Wishing you clear skies! 🌕🌌🔭

For this and more sky events, visit EarthSky’s night sky guide:
buff.ly/nSksjEr

📸 EarthSky.org.

Sun watchers were fixed on this spectacular #prominence eruption yesterday. The rope of solar material had been billowing since Sunday, and the event ended with a huge mass of plasma escaping into space yesterday afternoon. Read today's #sun news:
buff.ly/eV5YSbS

📸 NOAA.

Hi stargazers! Join EarthSky's Marcy Curran in a video preview of the #moon phases and planetary alignments for March 2026. Highlights include a beautiful #conjunction of #Venus and #Saturn later this week! See what's in store this month. Keep looking up! 🌕🪐🔭
buff.ly/XHAWK1O

📹 EarthSky.org.

Art of an observatory under the Milky Way with labels of alerts all across the sky.

The Vera C. Rubin #Observatory released its 1st #alerts for newly discovered asteroids, exploding stars and other changes in the night #sky. It is expected to eventually produce up to 7 million alerts per night. Wow! 🌌🔔🔭
buff.ly/kw5mvTy

📸 NSF–DOE VCRO/ NOIRLab/ SLAC/ AURA/ P. Marenfeld/ J. Pinto.

Bright center in yellow with reddish debris in a disk around it, seen face on. Bold white text says '1 of the biggest stars in the universe might be getting ready to explode.

WOH G64 is one of the biggest #stars in the universe, with a radius 1,500 times larger than that of our sun. And scientists think it might be getting ready to #explode. If we're lucky, we could see this star go out in a massive #supernova within our lifetimes. 💥🌌🔭
buff.ly/Qriufba

📸 ESO/ L. Calçada.

The moon looks deep red on the right side and light red on the left side.

This morning, millions across parts of North America, Asia, New Zealand and Australia saw the moon turn red in a stunning total lunar #eclipse. Did you see the spectacular #BloodMoon? If you weren't one of the lucky spectators, enjoy this new gallery:
buff.ly/tMxqNaC

📸 Catherine Hyde, California.

Dark cloud-like formation in space, in the shape of a horse's head, with bright stars around it, and pink clouds behind it.

It's a cosmic horse head! 🐴🌌🔭 Jelieta Walinski at the Desert Bloom Observatory in Arizona, captured this beautiful view of the #HorseheadNebula last month. Thank you, Jelieta! #nebula 📸
buff.ly/aRGazfd

See more great images and submit your own too:
buff.ly/QcQ6QrF

A bright blue bird with small black eyes sitting on a bird feeder. A house and swimming pool are in the background.

A brilliantly colorful bluebird! 🐦 Mark Wralstad in Virginia Beach, Virginia, saw this beautiful eastern #bluebird in his backyard last Friday. Thank you, Mark! #birds 📸
buff.ly/qOFrT74

See more great images, and submit your own recent photos, at EarthSky Community Photos:

buff.ly/QcQ6QrF

That's a great sample!

No, it will be the early hours of the morning: Partial eclipse begins at 3:50 a.m. for Central Time and 1:50 a.m. for Pacific Time (Baja California). Totality begins at 5:04 and 3:04 respectively, with maximum eclipse about half an hour later. It'll end about 6 (Central) or 4 Pacific.

The sun at the top right, surrounded by a blue sky. There are thin, tree branches, droplets and orangish clouds in the frame.

Our friend Sheryl R Garrison in Southern Alberta shared this photo with us and wrote: "I came across this tiny abstract of Earth and the sun reflected in a puddle. Next shot up? With any luck at all, the eclipsed #BloodMoon of March 3!" Fingers crossed for clear skies! Thank you!
buff.ly/Tv3R7u8

Small, elongated, fuzzy-looking yellow flowers. Some unopened buds are also on the plant stems.

It's almost #spring! ... 🌼 EarthSky friend Cecille Kennedy saw these fuzzy #flowers along the Alder Island Nature Trail in Oregon last Thursday. Thank you! 📸
buff.ly/FhjQKy5

Read why some call March 1 the first day of spring:
buff.ly/YKB578d

And see more lovely photos here:
buff.ly/QcQ6QrF

Sky chart with round red disk on the slanted green ecliptic line, near star Regulus.

Early risers, this one’s for you! Before dawn tomorrow, the full moon takes center stage and the real magic begins. As Earth’s shadow slowly sweeps across the lunar surface, that bright silver glow will fade into a deep, coppery red. More info, videos and charts here:
buff.ly/nSksjEr

📸EarthSky.org.

WOW! That's amazing!

Low-angle view of bright yellow tulips blooming in a field under a pale blue sky, green leaves reaching upward in sunlight.

Astronomers say the first day of #spring this year is March 20 at 14:46 UTC (9:46 a.m. CDT). But a meteorologist or climatologist will tell you spring starts today, March 1. Read why at: buff.ly/YKB578d

📸 Pexels.

Join EarthSky's Marcy Curran in a video preview of the stars, constellations - and planets - for the month of March 2026. There's a total lunar #eclipse, a close pairing of two planets and a lot of bright stars, here: buff.ly/mmI1A23

Increasingly shadowed moons arrayed from lower left to upper right with the fully-eclipsed middle one glowing red-orange.

A total lunar #eclipse is dramatic, beautiful and easy to view. During the eclipse, the sun, Earth and moon form a line in space. So Earth’s shadow falls on the moon’s face. Here are tips for watching the eclipse: buff.ly/L2Hg6lp

📸 Eric Jensen.

Composite image with the moon phases from partial shadow to a deep red total Blood Moon.

During the total lunar #eclipse of March 2-3, 2026, at maximum eclipse, the moon will look red. But why? Earth’s atmosphere is the key. Read more at: buff.ly/cludZna

📸 Patrick Prokop.

Pale blue, long hexagonal crystals growing from irregular rock.

March babies have two birthstones to choose from. There's the blue #aquamarine or the red-speckled bloodstone. Read more at: buff.ly/bSxYoeL

📸 Gunnar Ries Amphibol/ Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5).

Overnight on March 2-3, a total lunar #eclipse of the full Worm Moon will sweep across northwest North America, the Pacific Ocean and Japan, and parts of Australia, Southeast Asia, China, India, and Russia. Charts and info here: buff.ly/1v665Di

Or watch a video: buff.ly/MQALVUd

Sky chart: The bulging gibbous moon near the star Regulus along the steep ecliptic line, with the rest of the constellation Leo to the left.

The waxing gibbous #moon rises after sunset tonight near #Regulus, the brightest star in #Leo the Lion. Regulus is the bright dot at the bottom of the backward question mark called Leo’s Sickle. For more sky events, visit EarthSky’s night sky guide at: buff.ly/nSksjEr

Half-illuminated Moon against a clear blue daytime sky, showing detailed craters and rugged terrain along the shadowed edge.

Mandy Daniels in Derbyshire, United Kingdom, captured this image of the first quarter daytime #moon. Thank you, Mandy!
buff.ly/q845yXV

Have a photo of your own to share? Submit it here!
buff.ly/FgUfQRU

Wide-field view of the Spider and Fly Nebula region, showing red emission clouds with labeled star clusters M38 and NGC 1907, and bright nebula IC 417 glowing at right.

Tameem Altameemi in the United Arab Emirates captured this image of the beautiful Spider and Fly #Nebulae in the constellation Auriga. Thank you, Tameem!
buff.ly/weopzez

Have a photo of your own to share? Submit it here!
buff.ly/FgUfQRU

Jupiter on the slanted green ecliptic line, close to Castor and Pollux, above the moon which is also on the ecliptic.

On the final night of February, the waxing gibbous #moon will lie near #Jupiter and the twin stars of #Gemini, Castor and Pollux. They’ll set before dawn the next morning. For more sky events, visit EarthSky’s night sky guide at: buff.ly/nSksjEr

Sky chart for mid-to-late February 2026 evenings showing Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Mercury, and Venus aligned along the Sun’s path, with Orion and Sirius visible.

It’s true that there are 6 #planets in the sky after sunset tonight. Read about how to see them at: buff.ly/X3DJ8ku

Or watch a video here!
buff.ly/0qN4klw