Taipei Astronomical Museum

The night sky in March is full of excitement! The lunar occultation of the Pleiades on the 5th (Tuesday), Mercury’s greatest eastern elongation on the 8th (Friday), the disappearance of Saturn’s rings on the 24th (Sunday), and a series of planetary conjunctions with the Moon are all celestial events worth watching. Don’t miss this cosmic feast!Saturn, often hailed as the most beautiful planet in the solar system, is famous for its magnificent rings extending along its equatorial plane, spanning 280,000 kilometers. However, these rings are only 10 meters to 1 kilometer thick. Every 13 to 15 years, when Saturn's equatorial plane aligns perfectly with Earth, its rings appear to vanish because they are seen edge-on, with their tilt reaching 0 degrees. Even with a telescope, they become nearly invisible. The last occurrence was on August 11, 2009, and after 15 and a half years, this phenomenon will reappear on March 24. Unfortunately, Saturn will be too close to the Sun for observation.Starting in March, Saturn will exit the visible lineup of the seven major planets, while the Moon will sequentially meet other planets. The most stunning event is the Mercury-Moon Conjunction on the 1st (Saturday), when a slender crescent Moon will shine above Mercury before 19:00. This will be followed by the Venus-Moon Conjunction on the 2nd (Sunday), the Jupiter-Moon Conjunction on the 6th (Thursday), and the Mars-Moon Conjunction on the 9th (Sunday), each presenting its own unique charm.During its journey past the planets, the Moon will also pass through the brightest star cluster in the night sky—the Pleiades, commonly known as the "Seven Sisters." From 21:00 to midnight on March 5, this event can be enjoyed with the naked eye. Through binoculars, observers can witness the 4.3-magnitude star Atlas in the Pleiades being occulted by the Moon’s dark edge at 21:26 and reappearing at 22:24, while the 3.9-magnitude star Pleione will disappear at 21:52 and re-emerge at 22:27.The first greatest eastern elongation of Mercury this year will occur on March 8, when Mercury will be 18.2 degrees away from the Sun. It will be positioned low in the western sky after sunset, shining at an apparent magnitude of -0.4. If weather conditions permit, observers can spot this bright, white-glowing planet— the closest to the Sun—between 18:30 and 19:00 in an open western horizon a few days before and after the event.For more detailed information on these astronomical events, please visit the Taipei Astronomical Museum website.

Black holes are probably the most extraordinary objects in the cosmos: they can be born in violent explosions of very massive stars, they warp spacetime around them, they devour stars, and they generate gravitational waves detectable on Earth. We think that black holes of different sizes exist, from tiny and rapidly evaporating monsters to millions of solar masses in the centers of galaxies. Black holes continue to be at the edge of our knowledge; unravelling its mysteries is one of the most exciting challenges in human history, a challenge that will require all our capacities as a species and that will help us in our mission to understand the past, present, and future of this exciting place we call the cosmos. This film is a 32-minute production produced by Double Dome Films. Screening Date: July 2, 113 to June 30, 114Duration: about 32 minutesTrailer 

All life on Earth is connected by a great mystery we are only just beginning to unravel. Hidden between the world of plants and animals, another world exists…Fungi. We’ll begin in the mysterious world of the forest floor, where fungi are the central players in nature’s story of birth, death, and rebirth to discover that life as we know it simply would not exist without them. Join acclaimed British biologist, Dr. Merlin Sheldrake, on a quest to find an incredibly precious blue mushroom, against the backdrop of Tasmania’s ancient Tarkine rainforest. Merlin will show us some the grandest and strangest organisms ever discovered, showcased through jaw-dropping time-lapse cinematography, in a landscape largely unchanged from the time of the dinosaurs. With millions more species to discover, our journey into the secret world of fungi has only just begun.Screening dates: April 4, 2024 to April 3, 2025