What to Lookout for this March!

Spring is coming up in March, signaling the very awaited start of Galaxy Season! From March to May, the night sky will be filled with hundreds of galaxies for anyone to photograph and observe. Moreover, the weather will also be getting considerably better since we won't have to deal with the harsh winter conditions anymore. So to start Galaxy Season, these are the six best celestial bodies to photograph during March!


Venus (Second Planet)

Difficulty: Easy

Venus, the second closest planet to the Sun and one of the four inner terrestrial planets, is often called Earth’s twin because of its similar size and density. Even so, Venus is a distinctively different planet with a median surface temperature of 480 degrees Celsius, where no human can survive. Venus is the perfect planet to photograph in March as it begins to reach its zenith for 2023 and will have multiple conjunctions with the Moon, Jupiter, and other planets of our Solar System. These extraordinary conjunctions won't happen again until 2039, so make sure to bring your gear out whenever you have the chance! Anyone can observe and photograph Earth's twin, as it is bright enough to easily spot in the sky. You just need to have some equipment and know the time. Any telescope would suffice, but I suggest you use a focal length of around 600-900mm, which would capture its shape and distinguish it from other surrounding stars. To capture further detail, you should obtain a Barlow or Powermate lens to amplify your telescope's magnitude to zoom in even further. If you decide to do so, I suggest having a tracking mount, as Venus will quickly leave your field of view because of Earth's rotation. Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft captured the photo to the left in 2016, revealing the planet's surface compositions within its clouds.

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Bode's Galaxy (M81) and Cigar Galaxy (M82)

Difficulty: Easy

One of the most famous pairs of galaxies in the night sky is Bode's Galaxy (Messier 81) and the Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82). This pair of galaxies consists of a spiral galaxy (M81) and an irregular galaxy (M82), lying approximately 11.8 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. This part of the sky draws the attention of millions of astronomers and astrophotographers during March as they can capture two distinctively different galaxies in a single shot. To photograph Messier 81 and 82 together, a telescope with a focal length of 700-900mm and an aperture of 4" or more would be ideal. However, if you are attempting to create a mosaic of the two galaxies or want to capture the immense detail of a singular one, any focal length greater than 1000mm will do the job. Using a broadband filter will also dramatically help you eliminate light pollution and give more contrast to the galaxies. I don't usually suggest using SHO narrowband filters on galaxies, but since the Cigar Galaxy is composed of a rich amount of Hydrogen-alpha and some Oxygen-III gas, using them would definitely improve your photo. The incredible image to the left was taken by an amateur astrophotographer with the username, Captain-Marmote, using RGB and narrowband SHO filters.

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Messier 46 (NGC 2437)

Difficulty: Intermediate

Messier 46 is an open star cluster located in the constellation Puppis around 5,545 light-years from Earth. Astronomers estimate this star cluster is around 300 million years old and has about 250 stars. What is particularly unique about Messier 46 is that near the center of this cluster is a planetary nebula called NGC 2438, which is closer to Earth at a distance of around 3,000 light-years. Because of its apparent magnitude of 6.1 and large apparent size of 27 arc minutes, you can easily observe this star cluster with just a pair of binoculars. If you want to photograph this star cluster with the planetary nebula, you should have a telescope with a focal length of at least 800mm and an aperture of 4". You could also use filters like RGB to separate the different color wavelengths to make post-processing easier and obtain a higher-quality photo. Capturing a star cluster with a planetary nebula is truly a breathtaking experience, so this is definitely a go-to object in the night sky for March. The image to the left was taken by Jose Luis Martinez, where he captured the depth of Messier 46 and the gasses within the planetary nebula.

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NGC 2903

Difficulty: Intermediate

One of my favorite galaxies is NGC 2903, a barred spiral galaxy around 30.66 million light-years from Earth. Within the spiral arms of NGC 2903 are massive dust lanes and clusters of newborn stars. This galaxy resembles our Milky Way, which is likewise considered a barred spiral galaxy. These types of galaxies are gold mines for astronomers worldwide as they may hide the mysteries of the catalyst to star formation. Galaxies are considerably harder to photograph as they are usually smaller than nebulae; however, you can still capture a decent photo with amateur equipment. To photograph NGC 2903, I suggest using a telescope with a minimum focal length of 800mm with a large amount of exposure time to capture some detail. A telescope with a focal length of 1000mm or more would allow you to capture the detail of its spiral arms and random clusters of stars (they appear as bright blue specs). Since this is a galaxy, I don't suggest using any SHO filters. Instead, you should use narrowband RGB filters or a strong broadband filter to increase the contrast of your final image. The Schulman Telescope at Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, took this photograph of NGC 2903 on the left with RGB narrowband filters.

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Medusa Nebula (Abell 21)

Difficulty: Hard

One of the oldest planetary nebulae in the night sky is the Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21, the Medusa Nebula is around 1,500 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula has undergone a tremendous metamorphosis. The planetary nebula phase reflects the penultimate step in developing low-mass stars like the sun as they convert from red giants to hot white dwarf stars and shed their outer layers. The Medusa's transforming star is the faint one near the center of the bright crescent shape. To capture this glorious celestial body, you will need a telescope with a large aperture (8"+) and a focal length near 500mm to account for its high apparent magnitude and small size. To make your photo pop out even more, you can use filters like RGB, Ha, OIII, and SII to extract the separate gas colors from the nebula's composition. The extremely crisp image to the left was captured by Ken Crawford through a composition of different filters of light frames, atoning for the natural stars and filamentary patterns in the nebula.

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Eskimo Nebula (Caldwell 39)

Difficulty: Hard

The Eskimo Nebula, also known as Caldwell 39, is one of the night sky's most complex and mesmerizing nebulae. Astronomers have classified this nebula as a bipolar double-shell planetary nebula - a nebula formed when a dead star sheds its outer layers in a bipolar shape. Concurrently, the central star that initialized this process eventually dies down to become just its core, a white dwarf. This amazingly complex nebula was discovered in 1787 by William Herschel, which is extremely impressive considering the level of technology in the 18th century and Caldwell 39 having an apparent size of 0.33 arc minutes! Even today, it is difficult for an amateur astrophotographer to capture it in detail. If you want a slight chance at revealing some of its detail, you need a telescope with an extremely high focal length of at least 2000mm and a large aperture (8"+) to capture as much light as possible. In addition to using filters to block out unnecessary wavelengths and isolate different gasses, this nebula is undoubtedly the hardest to capture in March; however, if you push through these barriers and capture your photo of the Eskimo Nebula, I promise you will not regret it. This photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope is one of the best images to this day of Caldwell 39, showing its incredible detail and beauty.

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