What's in the March Night Sky?

Technically the dawn sky for you early risers.

A planetary conjunction occurs when two or more planets appear close to each other in the sky. The apparent proximity of planets is an optical illusion as the fact of the matter is they are very far away from each other.  It is their alignment that tricks our eyes.

The planets visible from earth are now clustered on the eastern night sky in the hours before sunrise.

Venus is the brightest object (other than the moon) in the southeast sky.  The Red Planet Mars is in the same part of the sky as Venus but is not as bright.  After March 15, Saturn can be found shining dimly, close to the sunrise, near the horizon as the dawn light is rising.  As the mornings pass in March, Saturn moves toward Venus and Mars in the sky.  On March 24 it forms an interesting flat isosceles triangle with those other two planets. 

On March 28, the thin crescent moon joins the show.  By the final morning of March, Saturn will have moved so that it lies in between Venus and Mars. 

All three planets will be visible to the naked eye but a pair of binoculars will vastly enhance your viewing experience.