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Pacific Daylight Time, or "daylight saving time," starts on Sunday morning, March 8, at 2 a.m. No time is "saved" by advancing our clocks by one hour. This sneaky trick in civil time is designed to rouse us out of bed an hour earlier so that we can enjoy what seems to be an extra hour of daylight before the sun goes down. Daylight saving time, when applied to the months of long daylight, has been proven to save significant amounts of electrical energy.
The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park flowers best this month, with peak blooms expected early in the month in low-lying, warm areas like Borrego Valley, the Borrego Badlands, Coyote Canyon, and along Highway S-2 in the south end of the park. Among the many annually appearing wildflowers you'll find in the low-lying areas are desert sunflower, dune primrose, lupine, desert chicory, sand verbena, and desert lily. On slightly higher ground and up along the hillsides, you'll spot blooming brittlebush, chuparosa, ocotillo, apricot mallow, and more. Starting in mid-month, several varieties of cactus should explode into bloom. For the latest update on this season's expected better-than-average bloom, call Anza-Borrego Desert State Park's special hotline, 760-767-4684, for a recorded message.
Saturn lies at opposition to the sun on Sunday, March 8. On or near that date, look for this creamy white planet over the east horizon as evening twilight gathers. At opposition Saturn remains in the sky all night, setting at sunrise, and it will remain a good telescopic target for the next three or four months. Saturn's rings are currently tilted only 2.5 degrees to the line of sight (practically edge-on), and nowhere near as opened up as they have been in the last several years. Earth will pass through the ring plane on September 4 of this year.
Full Moon occurs on the evening of Tuesday, March 10. Watch as the amber disk of the moon crawls above the east horizon (just before 7 p.m.), only a few minutes after the sun goes down in the west. Nearly twelve hours later, you can watch the moon sink into the Pacific Ocean while the sun is coming up on the other side of the sky. This out-of-phase, rise-set synchronicity is characteristic of every full moon. The 12-hour difference on this occasion is explained by the fact that both the sun and the moon will be near opposing equinoxes in the sky -- in other words, both will lie nearly over Earth's equator. Some folk names for the March full moon include "crow moon," "sap moon," "seed moon," "plow moon," and "moon of winds."
The Highest and Lowest Tides of March are associated with the month's full moon. Extreme high tides include Sunday's (March 8's) +5.8 foot tide at 7:50 a.m.; Monday's +5.9 foot tide at 8:37 a.m.; and Tuesday's +5.7 foot tide at 9:21 a.m. Extreme low tides include Saturday's (March 7's) -1.2 foot tide at 12:59 p.m.; Sunday's -1.3 foot tide at 2:36 p.m.; and Monday's -1.2 foot tide at 3:09 p.m. Starting next month and continuing until September, the lowest tides each month will occur during the wee hours and not during afternoon hours. Tidepool enthusiasts will have to wait until September to easily observe marine life in the lowest tidepools of the intertidal zone.
Pacific Daylight Time, or "daylight saving time," starts on Sunday morning, March 8, at 2 a.m. No time is "saved" by advancing our clocks by one hour. This sneaky trick in civil time is designed to rouse us out of bed an hour earlier so that we can enjoy what seems to be an extra hour of daylight before the sun goes down. Daylight saving time, when applied to the months of long daylight, has been proven to save significant amounts of electrical energy.
The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park flowers best this month, with peak blooms expected early in the month in low-lying, warm areas like Borrego Valley, the Borrego Badlands, Coyote Canyon, and along Highway S-2 in the south end of the park. Among the many annually appearing wildflowers you'll find in the low-lying areas are desert sunflower, dune primrose, lupine, desert chicory, sand verbena, and desert lily. On slightly higher ground and up along the hillsides, you'll spot blooming brittlebush, chuparosa, ocotillo, apricot mallow, and more. Starting in mid-month, several varieties of cactus should explode into bloom. For the latest update on this season's expected better-than-average bloom, call Anza-Borrego Desert State Park's special hotline, 760-767-4684, for a recorded message.
Saturn lies at opposition to the sun on Sunday, March 8. On or near that date, look for this creamy white planet over the east horizon as evening twilight gathers. At opposition Saturn remains in the sky all night, setting at sunrise, and it will remain a good telescopic target for the next three or four months. Saturn's rings are currently tilted only 2.5 degrees to the line of sight (practically edge-on), and nowhere near as opened up as they have been in the last several years. Earth will pass through the ring plane on September 4 of this year.
Full Moon occurs on the evening of Tuesday, March 10. Watch as the amber disk of the moon crawls above the east horizon (just before 7 p.m.), only a few minutes after the sun goes down in the west. Nearly twelve hours later, you can watch the moon sink into the Pacific Ocean while the sun is coming up on the other side of the sky. This out-of-phase, rise-set synchronicity is characteristic of every full moon. The 12-hour difference on this occasion is explained by the fact that both the sun and the moon will be near opposing equinoxes in the sky -- in other words, both will lie nearly over Earth's equator. Some folk names for the March full moon include "crow moon," "sap moon," "seed moon," "plow moon," and "moon of winds."
The Highest and Lowest Tides of March are associated with the month's full moon. Extreme high tides include Sunday's (March 8's) +5.8 foot tide at 7:50 a.m.; Monday's +5.9 foot tide at 8:37 a.m.; and Tuesday's +5.7 foot tide at 9:21 a.m. Extreme low tides include Saturday's (March 7's) -1.2 foot tide at 12:59 p.m.; Sunday's -1.3 foot tide at 2:36 p.m.; and Monday's -1.2 foot tide at 3:09 p.m. Starting next month and continuing until September, the lowest tides each month will occur during the wee hours and not during afternoon hours. Tidepool enthusiasts will have to wait until September to easily observe marine life in the lowest tidepools of the intertidal zone.