On the evening of March 28, Uranus will be very close to Venus, appearing to be less than 1/10th moon width apart (which makes my photo above of the moon in total eclipse next to Uranus unexpectedly relevant). Venus will be visible first, bright in the sky after sunset. The much less bright Uranus may require a telephoto lens, binoculars or telescope to see.
Literal heads-up: On March 28 Venus and Uranus will be VERY close together in the sky. Good reason to break out the telescope! Look west just after sunset. Venus is very bright but you’ll need at least binocs to see Uranus. https://t.co/rAX9NmXiwe pic.twitter.com/9AeROPI56F
— Phil Plait (@BadAstronomer) March 23, 2018
Then on March 30 the moon will rise shortly before sunset, and be about six degrees above the horizon at sunset. That’s about how far it needs to be in elevation when it’s starting to be visible through less of our polluted atmosphere, so viewing it is clearer. You can use smartphone apps including The Photographers Ephemeris (“TPE”) and PhotoPills to anticipate where the moon will come up, so you can position yourself to have the best possible composition with the moon next to or above a landmark in the distance.
Then somewhere around April 1, give or take a day or two, the 9.4-ton Chinese space station Tiangong-1 will fall to earth. No doubt it will put on quite a spectacle as it breaks up!
China CZ-7 rocket stage 2 falls to earth, July 27, 2016.
For updates on the likely expected descent time and location as the space station’s orbit decays, follow Jonathan McDowell’s latest posts on Twitter:
Tiangong-1 now 199 x 218 km orbit; down 4 km since yesterday. Still looks like Apr 1 to 2 is the best bet, but plus or minus a couple days
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) March 26, 2018
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