TUNGSTEN VALLEY - The moon turns dark blood-orange in a total eclipse at midnight, March 13-14. It’ll be as good as an eclipse can get, with our area in the bullseye. Recline in a lawn chair with a warm drink and watch the show. Here’s hoping for a clear sky! (The paired solar eclipse two weeks later won’t be visible in North America.)

Speaking of clear, this month we’re looking at the quality of our local night skies. For optimal viewing: cold, dry, clear, calm air in the wake of a storm system. Our altitude helps, giving us only three-fourths as much air to peer through than at sea level.

Prevailing winds tend to move metropolitan-area automobile exhaust away from us. Particulate pollution, though, is worsening due to more and bigger climate-related forest fires; smoke arrives from as far away as the Pacific Coast and Canada, turning the moon an ominous orange.

And then there’s pollution from outdoor lighting, shining upward or sideways. Illumination for streets, parking lots, building exteriors, and advertising scatters through night skies. Sky-directed light from poor installations is wasted and wasteful, obscuring our stars and killing birds and insects.

The metro-area Boulder-Denver Nebula soaks our eastern horizon. Off that horizon, though, Peak to Peak night skies mostly look pretty good.

You can measure light pollution with a sky quality meter or a smart-phone app. The meter, or else your phone-camera with an app, is carried into a dark-night spot with a clear sky, no moon, and no Milky Way. The system time-integrates incoming sky-light and displays a number. In bright cities it’s 16; pristinely dark skies read 22. (Send e-mail for the scale’s explanation.) Hereabouts, this correspondent’s readings average 21.6—not absolutely pristine, but remarkably good.

The Town of Nederland has only a few street lights and minimal illuminated outdoor signage. The ski area is dark at night.

The Nederland Post Office’s tall outdoor lights will be out for some time to come, the Postmaster informs us. Why? Nederland’s raucous winds have once again vibrated the bulbs out of their sockets. A boom-and-bucket crew will reassemble them when our weather clears, with an LED upgrade. (Plug in your own change-the-lightbulb line here.)

We evolved under dark skies. Wildlife needs them. They are part of humanity’s shared heritage. Stay informed, and involved, with government and local affairs to help keep our stars and nebulae visible, for ourselves and our succeeding generations.

March Fun Astro-Fact: The sun has 330,000 times earth’s mass. Jupiter, the largest planet, has the mass of more than 300 earths. Gravitationally, our solar system is just the sun and Jupiter.

In March Skies:

Solar Max Ramp-Up: The sun’s 11-year sunspot cycle peaks in July; it’s climbing now. The next few months are your best opportunity to see sunspots. Find safe-viewing instructions: https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/observing-the-sun/.

The sun begins the month in Aquarius, entering Pisces March 11. Equinox daytime and nighttime are 12 hours each on March 20. Days lengthen and nights shorten at their fastest rate this month.

Daylight Saving Time (DST), setting our clocks forward an hour, begins at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 9.

The moon’s dates are: First Quarter March 6; Full (Worm Moon) March 13; Last Quarter March 22; New March 29. Ramadan ends with (observation-dependent) first crescent on March 30.

March Meteor Showers: The Gamma Normids, a weak shower, peak on March 14 between 4 a.m. to sunrise.

Best Sky Viewing Nights (Minimal Moon): March 1-5 and 22-31.

Sunset (Mid-Month): Brilliant Capella is overhead. Orion is due south, with Sirius and Canis Major at south-southeast. Leo is rising. Castor and Pollux are very high in the east, with Mars. The Great Square of Pegasus is low in the west.

Midnight (Mid-Month): Vega rises in the northeast with the Big Dipper high in the north. Arc along the Dipper’s arm to Arcturus, then continue until you hit bright-white Spica in Virgo. Twin stars Zubeneschemali and Zubenelgenubi, in Libra, rise in the southeast. Southward are Corvus and Leo with Regulus. Pretty, reddish Alphard (One Who Stands Alone) is indeed alone, in the south.

Sunrise (Mid-Month): Bright red Altair is high in the southeast, forming the Navigator’s Triangle with Deneb leftward and Vega overhead. Scorpius with burning-red Antares is due south.

Mercury, in Pisces, gives its best evening-viewing opportunity of the year on March 7-8, low in the west at sunset. It’s next to (conjuncts with) Venus on March 11-12.

Venus, in Pisces, is the western Evening Star, lost in the sun by month’s end.

Mars, in Gemini, is spectacular next to Castor and Pollux. High in the southeast at sunset, it sets at 4 a.m.

Jupiter, in Taurus, high in the southwest at sunset with Aldebaran, sets at 1 a.m.

Saturn, in Pisces, goes into the sun.

Notable Space Missions: NASA’s Blue Ghost robotic lander set down on the moon on March 2. Jupiter-bound Europa Clipper gets a gravity-assist boost at Mars, as does the European Space Agency’s asteroid belt-bound Hera probe.

Frank Sanders, a spectrum scientist, takes astronomy-related inquiries at backyardastronomy1@gmail.com.