This is the Saint Louis Science Center’s NIGHT SKY UPDATE for the week of Saturday, March 8, 2025.
Information updated weekly or as needed.
Times given as local St. Louis time this week will be in Central Standard Time (CST) until March 8, 2025. Daylight Saving Time begins on March 9, 2025. On this date, local St. Louis times will be posted in Central Daylight Time (CDT). For definitions of terminology used in the night sky update, click the highlighted text. If relying on times posted in Universal Time (UT), St. Louis is -6 hours when CST and -5 hours when CDT. Times posted in the Night Sky Update are in the 24-hour format.
Join us for our next star party, Friday, April 4, 2025, held in association with the St. Louis Astronomical Society.
Observing Highlight of the Week
Total lunar eclipse that occurred on October 8, 2014. Image credit: Alfredo Garcia, Jr.
This week, a total lunar eclipse will be visible on March 13/14, 2025. The best views of this eclipse will be from North, Central and South America. The best parts of the eclipse start after midnight CDT on March 14, 2025. Times will vary depending on your location. Times mentioned below will be for St. Louis, Missouri. For your local timings visit Time and Date.
Watching eclipses is a long past time for our species. In ancient times, these mysterious events inspired many reactions which often were reactions of fear. Through careful observation Babylonian astronomers eventually discovered eclipses occur over a predictable cycle called the Saros.
When viewed from Earth, eclipses occur when the Sun, Earth and Moon align in an event called a syzygy. For a lunar eclipse the order of alignment is Sun-Earth-Moon. In this arrangement, when the Moon reaches its full moon phase, it passes through Earth’s shadow. The type of lunar eclipse depends on how much of Earth’s shadow the Moon passes through.
On March 13/14. 2025, The Moon starts to pass through Earth’s penumbral shadow around 22:57 CDT. The partial eclipse begins as the Moon enters Earth’s umbral shadow at 00:09 CDT on March 14, 2025. Totality begins at 01:26 CDT and lasts until 02:31 CDT with maximum eclipse at 01:58 CDT.
As the partial eclipse begins, the Moon will begin to disappear. When nearing totality, the Moon will begin to appear red. The red appearance is caused by sunlight passing through Earth’s thin atmosphere. The longer wavelengths will make it through dimly illuminating the Moon in a red glow. It is this red color that inspire many to call a lunar eclipse a “Blood Moon.” The name has no real meaning other than a description of the Moon’s appearance.
The next lunar eclipse visible from St. Louis Missouri is on March 3, 2026.
T CrB Nova Update 3/9/2025
If you are still interested in seeing the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis, there is still hope. The nova has not yet occurred meaning we are in a waiting game. It could happen this year or it could happen next year. We will have to wait and see. If you are still interested in this event, the part of the sky the nova will appear in is rising earlier each night. By midnight, the constellation Corona Borealis will be found high in the eastern sky. Spaceweather.com is still posting magnitude estimates from the AAVSO. This is the resource I recommend following to keep up with any changes in the star’s brightness. Current magnitude of the system is 10.0.
The Sun and Moon
The Moon as seen from the International Space Station, on July 31, 2011.
Credit: NASA
Sun
Sunrise is at 6:22 on Saturday, March 8 and sunset is at 18:01 providing over 11.5 hours of daylight. Even after sunset, light from the Sun will dimly illuminate our sky for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. This period is called twilight, which ends around 19:30 this week. For those with a sundial, local noon occurs around 12:12 on March 8, 2025.
Moon
Moonrise for Saturday, March 8, was at 15:36 and moonset occurred at 06:15 the following morning. The Moon starts the week off with a waxing gibbous phase exhibiting 89% disk illumination. By the end of the week the Moon will exhibit a waning gibbous phase with 94% disk illumination. Full moon occurs on March 14, 2025, at 01:55 CDT.
March’s full moon will pass through Earth’s shadow causing a lunar eclipse. This will be the first of two lunar eclipses this year. Unfortunately, The second one on September 7, 2025, will not be visible from St. Louis.
International Space Station (ISS) Observing
Passes of ISS visible from St. Louis for the week of March 8, occur in evening hours. The table below lists the best of these passes that will be seen from St. Louis. If you do not live in the area, you can use https://heavens-above.com/ to set your viewing location and get times for where you are.
Magnitude (Mag): The Measure of brightness for a celestial object. The lower the value is, the brighter the object will be.
Altitude (Alt): The angle of a celestial object measured upwards from the observer’s horizon.
Azimuth (Az): The direction of a celestial object, measured clockwise from an observer’s location with north being 0°, east being 90°, south being 180° and west being 270°.
Detailed information regarding all unmanned exploration of our universe, missions past, present, and planned, can be found at Jet Propulsion Laboratories
The Visible Planets
Looking southwest at 19:30 on March 9, 2025. Credit: Stellarium, EG
This week, four naked eye planets are visible. All three are visible in the evening sky not long after sunset.
Mercury
Mercury reached greatest elongation on March 8, 2024. It will now appear nearer the Sun each night remaining visible for a few more nights. Mercury reaches inferior conjunction on March 24, 2025.
Venus
Venus will be visible in the west after sunset. You can start looking for Venus about 15 minutes after the Sun sets. Venus will set by 20:46. Venus reaches inferior conjunction on March 22, 2025. Venus will continue to appear closer to the Sun becoming increasingly dangerous to look for Venus after this week.
Mars
Mars is now past opposition. Look for it nearly overhead after sunset. The current apparition of Mars will continue throughout the rest of 2025. Watch for the Red Planet as it shifts westward through the year. Mars sets around 04:40 this week.
Jupiter
Now past opposition, Jupiter rises before the Sun sets. Look for Jupiter overhead as the sky begins to darken. Jupiter sets around 00:52.
Our next Star Party will be held on Friday, April 4, 2025, from 6:30 pm until 9:30 pm
On the first Friday of each month, the St. Louis Astronomical Society and the Saint Louis Science Center will set up a number of telescopes outdoors and be on-hand to answer your questions. Telescope viewing begins once it is dark. Regardless of the weather on April 4, join us indoors in our planetarium theater for our “Monthly Sky Lecture”.
This free, indoor star program will introduce you to the current night sky. Doors open 15 minutes before show time. Once a show is underway, there are no late admissions due to safety issues in the darkened theater.
The St. Louis Astronomical Society helps host the monthly Star Parties at the Saint Louis Science Center. In addition to our nighttime viewings, they also help facilitate our daytime event called Solar Sundays. These daytime viewing sessions occur on the 3rd Sunday of each month. Visit SLAS’s website linked above to learn about other telescope events SLAS hosts around the St. Louis area.
James S. McDonnell Planetarium
Night Sky Update: March 8-16, 2025
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