Saturday SkyWatch
Saturday 7th March 2026
🌌 Saturday SkyWatch! 🌌
🌅 Sunset & Observatory Hours
- Sunset: 7:41 PM
- Nautical Sunset: 8:37 PM
- Astronomical Sunset: 9:08 PM
This Saturday we will be open from sunset till 10:30pm.
☁️ Weather & Viewing Conditions
B.O.M. Forecast for The Rock: http://www.bom.gov.au/places/nsw/the-rock/
To learn how to read the Clear Outside forecast page, follow this link: https://clearoutside.com/page/how_to_use/
Moon Phase
Tonight’s Moon is a Waning Gibbous (84.7%), 17.8 days old, and rises at 9:19 PM. This means a bright moon sky for our observations, making it more difficult to see faint objects.
ℹ️ Other Information
We recommend to bring a jacket as the weather can been tricky. As always feel free to bring a picnic blanket, some snacks and non-alcoholic refreshments. Please don’t forget to bring your Aeroguard or Bushmans in case of mosquitoes or other annoying insects.
🔭 In the Sky Tonight
Note that just because these objects are in the sky at the moment, you may not always see them. Visibility is dependent on weather, moon brightness, atmospheric conditions, and equipment parameters. Check the weather and viewing conditions above, and if in doubt ask a friendly volunteer if you’re able to see an object in the night sky!
Feature Object: M44 (Beehive Cluster)
Messier 44 (NGC 2632), also famously known as the Beehive Cluster or Praesepe, swarms with activity as its name would suggest. This open cluster of around 1,000 stars, loosely connected by gravity, is one of the closest to Earth at approximately 600 light-years away. The stars of open clusters form from the same cloud of collapsing gas and the Beehive Cluster is thought to be quite young, around 600-700 million years old. In contrast, its Milky Way home is known to be about 4.6 billion years old.
M44 was first characterized as more than a cloudy nebula by Galileo in 1609, who resolved around 40 of the stars within it. Charles Messier added it to his famous catalog in 1769 after precisely measuring its position in the sky.
M44 covers the space of about three full moons (or 1.5 degrees) on the sky in the constellation Cancer and is best seen in the Southern Hemisphere’s autumn sky, reaching its highest point in March. Under dark skys to the unaided eye, it looks like a blur of light positioned just above where the three branches of the “Y” of Cancer meet, while a pair of binoculars can resolve around 20 stars. A telescope will reveal scores to hundreds more of the cluster’s collection of mostly blue-white stars.
Ancient Greeks and Romans saw this object as a manger from which two donkeys, the adjacent stars ‘Asellus Borealis’ and ‘Asellus Australis’, are eating. These are the donkeys that Dionysos and Silenus rode into battle against the Titans.
In September 2012, two planets which orbit separate stars were discovered in the Beehive Cluster. The finding was significant for being the first planets detected orbiting stars like Earth’s Sun that were situated in stellar clusters. Planets had previously been detected in such clusters, but not orbiting stars like the Sun. The planets have been designated Pr0201 b and Pr0211 b. The ‘b’ at the end of their names indicates that the bodies are planets. The discoveries are what have been termed hot Jupiters, massive gas giants that, unlike the planet Jupiter, orbit very close to their parent stars. In 2016 additional observations found a second planet in the Pr0211 system. This made Pr0211 the first multi-planet system to be discovered in an open cluster.
Prominent Constellations
Taurus, Orion, Carina, Auriga, Tucana, Dorado, Centaurus, Gemini, Crux, Hydra, Vela, Puppis, Musca, Sculptor, Reticulum, Fornax, Canis Major, Cancer, Monoceros, Cetus, Lepus, Leo, Lynx, Sextans, Columba, Horologium, Apus, Chamaeleon, Eridanus
Celestron Alignment Stars
Acrux, Betelgeuse, Deneb, Achernar, Sirius, Menkar
Other Bright Stars
Aldebaran, Alhena, Alnilam, Alnitak, Alphard, Aludra, Ankaa, Avior, Bellatrix, Canopus, Castor, El Nath, Gacrux, Hadar, Miaplacidus, Mintaka, Mirzam, Muhlifain, Naos, Pollux, Procyon, Regor, Rigel, Saiph, Scutulum, Suhail, Wezen
Open Clusters
M 45 (Pleiades), M 36 (Pinwheel Cluster), M 38 (Starfish Cluster), M 35 (Shoe Buckle Cluster), NGC 4755 (Jewel Box Cluster), C 100 (Running Chicken Nebula), NGC 3766 (Pearl Cluster), NGC 3532 (Wishing Well Cluster), NGC 2547, NGC 2516 (Southern Beehive), NGC 3114, NGC 3293 (Little Jewel Box Cluster), C 85 (Omicron Velorum Cluster), C 102 (Southern Pleiades), M 37 (Salt and Pepper Cluster), M 41 (Little Beehive Cluster), M 44 (Beehive Cluster), M 46, M 47, M 48, M 50 (Heart-Shaped Cluster), M 67 (Golden Eye Cluster), M 93 (Critter Cluster), C 41 (Hyades), NGC 2244, NGC 2506, NGC 2360, NGC 2362 (Tau CMa Cluster), NGC 2477, NGC 4609 (Coal Sack Nebula), Cr 69, Cr 70
Globular Clusters
NGC 104 (47 Tucanae), NGC 5139 (Omega Centauri), NGC 4372, M 68, M 79, NGC 2419, NGC 1851, NGC 3201, NGC 5286, NGC 1261, NGC 362, NGC 4833 (The Southern Butterfly), NGC 6101, NGC 2032, NGC 2238 (Rosette Nebula), NGC 2467
Galaxies
NGC 5128 (Hamburger Galaxy), NGC 4945 (The Tweezers Galaxy), NGC 55 (String of Pearls), NGC 300 (Sculptor Pinwheel Galaxy), NGC 1313 (The Topsy Turvy Galaxy), NGC 1365 (Great Barred Spiral Galaxy), NGC 1097, M 77 (Cetus A), M 95, M 96, M 105, NGC 2775, NGC 3115, IC 481, IC 2032, NGC 292 (Small Magellanic Cloud), NGC 981, NGC 1232, NGC 1269 (Snow Collar Galaxy), NGC 1407, LMC (Large Magellanic Cloud)
Active and Interacting Galaxies
NGC 1566 (Doradus Cluster), NGC 1316 (Fornax A)
Bright Nebula
M 1 (Crab Nebula), M 42 (Orion Nebula), NGC 3372 (Eta Carinae), NGC 2070 (Tarantula Nebula), NGC 3242 (Ghost of Jupiter), NGC 3132 (Southern Ring Nebula), M 43 (De Mairan’s Nebula), M 78 (Flame Nebula), C 31 (Flaming Star Nebula), NGC 2261 (Hubble s Variable Neb.), IC 2177, IC 2948, NGC 1555, NGC 1980, NGC 2024 (Flame Nebula), NGC 2170, NGC 2359 (Thor’s Helmet)
Dark Nebula
C 99 (Coal Sack), B 22 (Taurus Dark Cloud), IC 434 (Horsehead Nebula)
Planetary Nebula
NGC 2440 (Albino Butterfly Nebula), NGC 2392 (Eskimo Nebula), NGC 2867, NGC 3195, IC 418, NGC 1535 (Cleopatra s Eye Nebula)
Planets
Jupiter, Uranus
🪐 Astronomical Events for the month
3 Mar Total Lunar Eclipse. Click for more details (next time will 31 Dec 2028) 7 Mar Conjunction between Venus and Saturn (very low in the west immediately after sunset) Mercury at inferior conjunction (directly between Earth and the Sun) 10 Mar Moon at apogee (farthest distance from Earth) Moon conjunction with Antares (Scorpius) in the early morning hours. 12 Mar Moon in constellation of Sagittarius 19 Mar Moon in conjunction with Venus (very low in the west immediately after sunset) 21 Mar Autumnal Equinox at 1:46AM 22 Mar Moon at perigee (closest approach to Earth) 23 Mar Moon in conjunction with Aldebran and Pleiades (Tauras) 25 Mar Saturn solar conjunction (directly behind the sun) – Returning to the morning sky in April. 26 Mar Moon in conjunction with Jupiter Note: All other astronomical events occurring this week are not visible from the Southern Hemisphere, or only visible through the daytime.
As always, don’t forget to look up wherever you are!
– The TRRO Team
References
List data is gathered using ‘Starry Night Enthusiast V8.1.0.2048’, Google AI and the following links.
Time and Date https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/@-35.27,147.12
B.O.M. https://www.bom.gov.au/places/nsw/the-rock/
Clear Outside https://clearoutside.com/forecast/-35.27/147.12
Objects below 15o azimuth are not included.