March is the beginning of what is called Galaxy Season. At this time of year, the Milky Way gets out of the way, making many galaxies easy to view in the northern hemisphere. Several impressive ones can be easily found in binoculars, including Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy. It is one of the easiest to find as it is quite bright. In binoculars, it looks like a great gray blob and if you have a telescope, you can tease out the dust lanes and other details the longer you observe it. M31 can be found easily: it is just up and to the right of the bright star Mirach in the constellation Andromeda. I usually use the Great Square of Pegasus to find it: it’s off to the left of the bottom left corner, above Mirach.
Another galaxy visible in binoculars is M81, Bode’s Galaxy. It is located in the northern sky about two-thirds of the way between the north star, Polaris, and a little bit to the left of the scoop of the Big Dipper. It can be resolved in binoculars but is best seen with a small telescope. Once you find M81, it should be easy to find M82, the Cigar Galaxy, since they’re really close together in the sky. For this pair, you’ll want to draw an imaginary line from the corner of the bowl of the Big Dipper below the handle (not next to) diagonally to the opposite corner, and then keep going about that same distance. It might take a few tries if you’re star hopping. I know it did for me.
There is much to look at in the night sky besides galaxies. Take advantage of the new moon coming this weekend and once again check out the Great Orion Nebula, M42. Find the three stars of Orion’s belt, and then look for the sword hanging from the belt. In the middle of the sword is a bright cluster of objects, the largest of which is M42. It is very bright and puts on a good show in binoculars.
M45, the Pleiades star cluster, is also still visible. If the sky is very clear you will be able to see the six major stars of the cluster with your naked eye. You will see lots of stars in binoculars. Go from the belt of Orion to the ‘V’ of Taurus and keep going. You might even be able to pick out the faint nebulosity of the cluster.
Last, but not least, the planet Mars is going to be visible all month. Look for the bright pinkish-orange object in the western sky between sunset and midnight about a third of the way up from the horizon.
More Information
Andromeda Galaxy star chart
Bode’s Galaxy star chart
Cigar Galaxy star chart
Orion Nebula star chart
Pleiades star chart
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Sorry but this galaxy information isn’t that useful. Andromeda won’t be visible until the Milky Way gets out of the way “again”, i.e. in August or so. On the other hand this is a great time to view M81 and M82 as mentioned, along with a host of other galaxies in and around Ursa Major and CVn. Coming up … Leo with its galaxy groupings.