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Tuesday 19 March 2024  •  Monday 8 Alder Moon 2024 (night)


Watching the night sky in Alder Moon 2024

11 March - 8 April 2024

Map of night sky at full moon: 25 March, 07:00 UTC
Northern hemisphere perspective, aligned on the ecliptic. Morning sky to the left, evening to the right.

night sky map for Alder Moon 2024

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks comes close to the sun every 71 years. This time it should be visible to the naked eye low down in the west after dark from about 27 March. The much brighter Mercury is between it and the sunset, and the even brighter Jupiter is well to its south. By the end of the month, the comet is quite near Jupiter, and brighter as it approaches the sun, but also harder to see in the evening twilight. Later this year, during Ivy and Yew Moons, we hope to see a brighter comet.

Mercury is visible in the western evening sky for much of the month, especially around 23 March when it reaches 19°E of the sun, and can be seen clearly between the brighter Jupiter and the sunset, before slipping quickly into the twilight over the next week or so. On 11 March, Mercury, still hard to see, is between the new crescent moon and the sun.

Saturn rises from behind the sun to join Mars and Venus in the morning sky, but Venus is moving gradually into the twilight. On 22 March, Venus passes a third of a degree north of Saturn, hard to see in the dawn from northern skies. The old moon is near Mars and Saturn on 6 April. The moon occults Saturn as seen from the South Pole: (13) 22:17 to 22:54.

The moon occults Neptune in the dark as seen from the South Atlantic: Gritvyken, South Georgia from moonrise at (-2) 05:02 to 05:32; Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, Tristan da Cunha (0) 06:42 to sunrise at 07:08.

At full moon on 25 March, there is a penumbral eclipse of the moon, visible mainly from the Americas. In this eclipse, the main shadow passes to the south of the moon, and all you will see is a slight darkening near the moon’s south pole. This area of the moon will experience a partial eclipse of the sun. Maximum eclipse is at (0) 07:12, about an hour after the moon has set over Britain and Ireland.

At dark moon on 8 April, there is a total eclipse of the sun visible from parts of Mexico, the US and SE Canada, moving through Sinaloa, Durango, Coahuila, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. Times of the middle of the total eclipse: Mazatlán, Sinaloa (-7) 11:11; Durango (-6) 12:16; Torreón, Coahuila at (-6) 12:21; Piedras Negras, Coahuila and Eagle Pass, Texas(-5) 13:31; just NW of San Antonio (-5) 13:36; just NW of Austin (-5) 13:39; Waco (-5) 13:42; Dallas (-5) 13:44; Greenville (-5) 13:46; Paris (-5) 13:47; Idabel, Oklahoma (-5) 13:49; De Queen and Mena, Arkansas (-5) 13:50; Hot Springs (-5) 13:53; just NW of Little Rock (-5) 13:54; Walnut Ridge (-5) 13:58; Poplar Bluff, Missouri (-5) 14:00; Sikeston (-5) 14:01; Mount Vernon, Illinois (-5) 14:04; Evansville, Indiana (-5) 14:06;  Indianapolis (-4) 15:09; Fort Wayne (-4) 15:12; Dayton, Ohio (-4) 15:12; Toledo (-4) 15:15; Cleveland (-4) 15:17; Erie, Pennsylvania (-4) 15:20; Buffalo, New York (-4) 15:22; Rochester (-4) 15:23; Watertown (-4) 15:26; Potsdam (-4) 15:27; Plattsburgh (-4) 15:29; Burlington, Vermont (-4) 15:29; Newport (-4) 15:30; Stewartstown, New Hampshire (-4) 15:31; Houlton and Presque Isle, Maine (-4) 15:35. In Canada: Hamilton, Ontario (-4) 15:21; Kingston (-4) 15:25; Montréal, Québec (-4) 15:29; Sherbrooke (-4) 15:31; Grand Falls and Woodstock, New Brunswick (-3) 16:35; Miramichi (-3) 16:37; Tracadie-Sheila (-3) 16:38; Alberton, Prince Edward Island at (-3) 16:39; Port aux Basques and Stephenville, Newfoundland (-2.5) 17:13; Grand Falls (-2.5) 17:15; Clarenville at (-2.5) 17:16. A partial eclipse is seen from the whole of North America except most of Alaska, but including Central America and the Caribbean, as well as the far NW of Columbia, Bermuda and the far west of Europe. Times of maximum eclipse, with percentage of the sun covered: Honolulu 18% at (-10) 07:14; San Francisco 34% (-5) 11:15; México 72% (-6) 12:16; Managua 19% (-6) 12:26; Vancouver 17% (-7) 11:32; Juneau 2% (-8) 10:34; Panamá  3% (-5) 13:35; Denver 65% (-6) 12:42; Houston 91% (-5) 13:42; New Orleans 79% (-5) 13:51; Minneapolis 74% (-5) 14:04; Miami 44% (-4) 15:04; Chicago 94% (-5) 14:09; Detroit 99.4% (-4) 15:16; London, Ontario 99.7% (-4) 15:19; Toronto 99.9% (-4) 15:21; Ottawa 98.7% (-4) 15:26; New York 88% (-4) 15:27; Boston 91% (-4) 15:31; Québec 98.5% (-4) 15:32; Fredericton, New Brunswick 99.9% (-3) 16:36; Hamilton, Bermuda 45% (-3) 16:36; Nuuk, Greenland 47% (-1) 18:36; Halifax, Nova Scotia 93% (-3) 16:39; Reykjavík 47% (0) 19:41; St John’s, Newfoundland 98.5% (-2.5) 17:17; Ponta Delgada, Azores 66% (0) 20:00. If you are in Scotland, Ireland, far west Wales, the Isle of Man, the Isles of Scilly, the Faroes or Madeira, you have a good view to the west, and you have an eclipse filter, or are projecting the view on to card, you may be able to see the dark moon below the sun, just starting to bite before they fall below the horizon.

This full moon is a micromoon, meaning that it is near apogee, and further than 405,000 km from Earth, and so a little smaller than usual.



The month ahead: Willow Moon 2024

9 April - 7 May 2024

Map of night sky at full moon: 23 April, 23:49 UTC
Northern hemisphere perspective, aligned on the ecliptic. Morning sky to the left, evening to the right.

night sky map for Willow Moon 2024

Jupiter is in the western evening sky, initially setting two hours or so after the sun. On 20 April, it passes half a degree south of Uranus. Look for the pair through binoculars. By the end of the month, Jupiter is low in the evening twilight, and hard to see.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is in the low western evening sky at the start of the month. On 10 April, it is in a small cluster with the new crescent moon, Jupiter and Uranus, with the Pleiades above. Look for them with binoculars. The comet should be brighter than Uranus. 12P disappears from the northern sky a few days later, but continues to be visible from the southern hemisphere after dark in the constellations Taurus and Eridanus.

Mars is brightening as it rises slowly higher into the pre-dawn sky, rising an hour and a quarter or so before the sun by the end of the month. Between Mars and the sunrise are Venus and Mercury, but from northern lands they are very low down, and hard to see. If you have a very clear eastern horizon on 19 April, you might be able to see the very bright Venus, really low down to the right of the coming sunrise. Just above it that morning is the fainter Mercury.

Saturn makes its way further into the morning sky, and is roughly the same brightness as Mars at the moment, though Mars may appear redder. On 10 April, Mars passes half a degree north of Saturn. On 29 April, Mars passes two minutes of arc south of the faint ice giant Neptune. Look for the pair with good binoculars.

Venus is in the morning sky at the start of the month, already hard to see from northern skies, but falls further into the dawn, and for the rest of the month is out of view behind the sun.

The old moon is near Saturn on the night 3/4 May, and occults it as seen from the South Pole: (12) 10:03 to 10:50 4 May.

The moon is just south of Mars (as seen from Europe) on 5 May; as seen from the Seychelles and nearby parts of the Indian Ocean, the moon occults Mars. From Victoria, the occultation lasts from (4) 04:30 to 05:08. A few hours later on 5 May, the moon occults Neptune in the dark as seen from SE Australia and Aotearoa / New Zealand: Hobart (10) 03:08 to 04:03; Sydney (10) 03:10 to 03:57; Melbourne from moonrise at (10) 03:18 to 03:59; Brisbane (10) 03:25 to 03:43; Ōtautahi / Christchurch (12) 05:15 to 06:16; Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara / Wellington (12) 05:15 to 06:18; Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland (12) 05:15 to 06:19.

The moon is just north of Mercury on 6 May. By this date, Venus is too near the dawn to see.

Look out for the Lyrid meteors in the early hours of 23 April, though they may be difficult to see in the light of the full moon.
Also look out for the Eta Aquarid meteors, especially from the southern hemisphere, in the early hours of 7 May. The old moon is well out of the way.



William Morris
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