March, the third month, is named for Mars, the Roman god of agriculture. This may surprise many readers who associate him with the martial arts, but he was first worshipped as the protector of those who worked the fields in dangerous times so he eventually became famed as the god of soldiers and war.

The planet Mars got its name because of its reddish hue that reminded people of blood spilled in battle. The month of March was a time of elaborate celebration, but this may not have been an entirely unmixed blessing for the Roman citizens, as the emperor also chose the celebration as a time to take a census of citizens for taxation.

Focus on the planets

Starting with Jupiter and following a line to the right and downward to the horizon, will lead to Saturn, Mars, and eventually Venus in that order. This line of planets follows the ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun through the heavens.

Mercury is in the morning sky but lies too far south for observers in the Northern Hemisphere. It will reappear in the evening sky in late April.

Venus starts the month just peeking above the western horizon about 30 minutes after sunset. By month’s end, Venus will be higher, and remain in view longer, rewarding viewers with a tiny, fully illuminated disk.

Mars is well up on the western horizon an hour after sunset. It is located well to the lower right of Saturn. Although the red planet is too far distant to reveal any surface details, it is prominent in an otherwise starless region of the sky.

Jupiter is very high in the west, almost directly overhead, at sunset. The two stars immediately above Jupiter are twins Castor and Pollux.

Saturn lies to the lower right of Jupiter near the reddish star Aldebaran. Saturn’s rings are tilted at nearly their most favorable viewing by telescope.

Uranus and Neptune will not emerge from the morning twilight in March.

Pluto is in Ophiuchus but will not become visible until late spring or early summer.

Our celestial neighborhood

Comets have inspired fear and awe throughout the ages because of their sudden appearance in the sky. They were thought to be signs of momentous events, almost always bad.

King Harold of England was so demoralized by the appearance of Halley’s comet just before the battle of Hastings in 1066 that many historians believe it contributed greatly to his loss to William the Conquerer.

Donald Gropman, in his book “Comet Fever,” says that Halley’s comet caused worldwide panic in 1910 when it was learned that Earth would pass through its tail.

Harvard astronomer Fred Whipple described comets as “flying snowbanks,” consisting of little more than dust and grit held together by ice. The solid core, or nucleus, of a comet is only 3 to 12 miles in diameter but they appear much larger because of being surrounded by a large envelope of gases.

Comet tails consist of dust, water vapor, and ionized gases and can stretch to nearly 100 million miles in length. Comets are derived from the “Oort Cloud,” a band of 100 billion comet nuclei situated at the outermost edges of the solar system. Occasionally one will be pulled into the inner regions of the solar system by gravitational attraction where they become “one time only” or periodic comets – such as Halley’s, which returns every 76 years.

Halley’s comet loses 50 tons of water per second as it passes close to the sun but, even so, is expected to last another 100,000 years. Its first recorded appearance was in 2616 B.C.

March events

1 Sunrise, 6:14 a.m.; sunset, 5:22 p.m.

6 Moon in last quarter, 8:26 p.m.

10 Arcturus, the “spring star,” appears low in the east at about 9 p.m. It is the brightest star in the east and will become increasingly prominent.

12 The sun enters Pisces on the ecliptic.

14 New moon, 9:04 p.m. The moon is at apogee, or farthest distance from Earth.

15 Look for the thin crescent moon to the upper right of Venus near the western horizon. The Ides of March, not the best day for Julius Caesar.

17 St. Patrick’s Day. Look for Mars to the upper right of the crescent moon tonight.

19 The moon, Saturn and Aldebaran form a tight triangle tonight. Also check out the Pleiades to the moon’s immediate right. The asteroid Vesta passes just south of Saturn tonight and could be mistaken for one of the ringed planet’s moons through a telescope.

20 The spring or vernal equinox occurs at 2:17 p.m., the time when the sun crosses the celestial equator and returns to the northern hemisphere signaling the advent of spring. The sun enters the astrological sign of Aries but, astronomically, is still in Pisces.

21 Look for the moon to Jupiter’s immediate lower right at about 10 p.m.

22 Moon in first quarter, 9:29 p.m.

28 Full moon, 1:25 p.m. The full moon of March is called the Sap Moon, Crow Moon or Lenten Moon. The moon is at perigee, or closest approach to Earth, and the coinciding of these two events may lead to abnormally high tides.

31 Sunrise, 5:19 a.m.; sunset, 6:01 p.m. Happy Easter!

Clair Wood taught physics and chemistry for more than a decade at Eastern Maine Technical College in Bangor.