This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 Feb 28 – Mar 7
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 Feb 28 – Mar 7
Do you hear the wind? According to the weather proverb, March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, referring to roaring winds early in the month and calmer days leading into April. As twilight ends this week, look off to the east for a group of stars forming a sickle and leading a large triangle of stars. This combination is the constellation of Leo the Lion entering the sky as it did a few centuries ago, when the saying supposedly originated.
Now look to the west for a bent line of three stars west of the Pleiades star cluster. That is Aries the Ram, which could still be a lamb at heart. By the end of the month the annual march of constellations has Aries about to leave the sky as twilight ends. Our fickle weather won’t always follow the proverb but the constellations will continue to play it out for several generations to come.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:59 and sunset will occur at 6:04, giving 11 hours, 5 minutes of daylight (7:03 and 6:10 in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 6:46 and set at 6:14, giving 11 hours, 28 minutes of daylight (6:51 and 6:19 in Saint John).
The Moon is near Regulus on Sunday and full on Tuesday when we are treated to a morning eclipse. The partial phase begins at 5:50 with totality occurring at 7:04, shortly after moonset for all but the northwestern edge of New Brunswick. This Saturday evening do not expect to see a parade of parade of planets as depicted on social media. You will need an unobstructed western horizon to see Mercury a binocular width to the right of much brighter Venus around 6:45, with both about a binocular width above the horizon and setting less than half an hour later. Saturn will be within two binocular fields upper left of Venus, and next weekend Venus will be passing closely to the right of Saturn as they head in opposite directions. On Sunday evening, with Jupiter high overhead, telescope users might see its moon Ganymede reappear from the planet’s shadow at 7:16 with Io’s shadow near the middle of the planet.
Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay. The Saint John Astronomy Club meets in the Rockwood Park Interpretation Centre on March 7 at 7 pm.