March Quiet Month for Meteor Showers

March is a quiet month in terms of getting out to see any meteors. There are no real significant meteor showers of note. You may get lucky on any given night and see a few sporadic meteors.

But there are other gems in the sky that you can catch during the month of March. Winter constellations are visible, along with some planets. In the northern hemisphere, nights will not be quite as cold as spring approaches. It is worthwhile to get out under the stars to gear up for the summer observing season. In March, You'll still be able to see the winter constellations of Orion the hunter and Taurus the Bull. At dusk, you should be able to easily pick off Venus, one of the brighter objects in the early evening sky. Mars will be high overhead with Saturn rising later at night.

In April, meteor shower activity starts to pick up with the Lyrid meteor shower. You will need to stay up late, or get up early to be able to see any Lyrids. There will be about a half moon visible, so you should be able to get a to see after the moon sets after midnight. Lyrids are typically short lived. They are small and hit the earth at a high velocity, leaving a short bright streak in the sky.