🔭 WATCHERS OF THE SKIES: Homeschool Astronomy for March

On the first Saturday of every month we post educational skywatching notes for the homeschool month ahead. Follow along with us to enlarge your students’ understanding of science and the whole universe. (And maybe yours too!)

➤ Look up! There will be a Total Lunar Eclipse coming up on the night of 13–14 March 2025 (Thursday–Friday). It will be visible all across North America and in many other places as well. Get all the details on the timeanddate.com eclipse page and make a viewing plan for your homeschool today! 🌕

➤ Spring ahead: Daylight Saving Time begins in most U.S. jurisdictions at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March (that’s the 9th this year). You should set your clocks forward one hour from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. 🕑 ↻ 🕒

Here’s this month’s five-minute northern hemisphere night-sky review, courtesy of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California — it features March planets and this month’s lunar eclipse. Open it up on a large screen for the whole family to watch:

One of the easiest astronomical exercises you and your students can do each month is print out your own copy of the current two-page Evening Sky Map and monthly sky calendar available from skymaps.com:

• ➢ Evening Sky Maps – Northern Hemisphere (updated monthly)

Each map includes a constellation chart for the month as well as a schedule of upcoming astronomical events and an astronomical glossary. (Monthly maps for the southern hemisphere and the equatorial regions are also available.) Give a copy to your students and ask them to study it and report back to you on two notable things you can watch for this month. (And as they report to you, ask them questions about what they’re telling you and have them look up any unfamiliar words in your family dictionary or backyard sky guide.) Do that for a few minutes each month, and before you know it you’ll have a team of expert astronomers in your homeschool.

The best stargazing nights this March will be toward the beginning and the end of the month: the moon will be full (and the stars more difficult to see) on 14th (eclipse night!). As always, you can look up the moon’s phases in your River Houses almanac and also on the timeanddate.com website. (And the full moon dates appear on all of our printable homeschool planners, too!) 🌑 🌓 🌕 🌗 🌑

March is the first month of Leo Term, our spring term in the River Houses. Our Great Star for the month of March is brilliant Sirius (alpha Canis Majoris), the brightest star in the night sky, which we’ll be writing about next week. Print your own River Houses Star Calendar and follow along with us through the year as we learn about twelve of the high lights of the northern hemisphere night sky. 🌟

March is also the month of the vernal (spring) equinox in the northern hemisphere — the astronomical beginning of spring — which falls this year on Thursday the 20th. (In the southern hemisphere the 20th will be the autumnal equinox — the astronomical beginning of fall.) On the day of the equinox we experience almost exactly twelve hours of light and twelve hours of darkness: “equal light and night.” 🌞 🌚

What celestial sights and aerial apparitions will you and your young astronomers be watching for during this homeschool March? 🔭

❡ All the star-sown sky: Teaching your students to recognize the constellations is one of the simplest and most enduring gifts you can give them. Our recommended backyard star guide and homeschool world atlas both contain charts of the constellations that will help you learn your way around the heavens. Find a dark-sky spot near you this month and spend some quality homeschool time with your students beneath the starry vault. ✨

❡ Make friendship with the stars: This is one of our regular Homeschool Astronomy posts. Add your name to our free River Houses mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week. 📫

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓

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❡ Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groups — local chapters that we call “Houses.” Our first at-large chapter, Headwaters House, is now forming and is open to homeschoolers everywhere. Find out how to become one of our founding members on the Headwaters House membership page. 🏡