Moon passes the Pleiades and Aldebaran, March 7 – 9

If you see the moon Sunday evening, March 6, it’ll be an even thinner crescent than those shown on this chart. Watch for it in the west shortly after sunset early this week! The moon’s motion in our sky – as illustrated on this chart – is a translation of its actual motion in orbit around Earth. Chart by John Jardine Goss.

Have you been watching the moon the last few evenings as it moves from a crescent into a fatter phase? The date of the 1st-quarter moon in March is on the 10th. The moon’s lit face grows over the next few nights, and you can see it’s not quite half-lit. And as its lit portion increases in size, it heads eastward across the sky. On the evening of March 8, it glows between the Pleiades star cluster and the bright star Aldebaran.

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The moon between two clusters

Aldebaran is also part of a star cluster, the Hyades star cluster. This V-shaped grouping of stars forms the head of the bull in Taurus. Which star cluster is easier to see with the bright moon between them? Tonight is a good night to take out binoculars or a telescope and explore the star clusters and the moon. Remember to save viewing the moon for last, because its bright light through a lens will undo your night vision for a while.

By March 9, the moon will have moved on, now forming a triangle with the clusters instead of a straight line. On the date of 1st-quarter moon, it passes above the head of Orion. It will be another week before the moon is full, and by then it will be all the way across the sky in Virgo. It rises around sunset near the eastern horizon, like all full moons.

Bottom line: The moon passes between the Pleiades star cluster and the Hyades star cluster – with its reddish star Aldebaran – in the constellation Taurus on March 8.

Read more: EarthSky’s visible planets – night sky guide – for March 2022

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