Stargazing highlights for 2003:

May 15: Total eclipse of the moon begins at 10:03 p.m., the first visible here in more than three years.

Aug. 27: Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in 50,000 years and appears as bright as Jupiter.

Nov. 8: The year's second lunar eclipse begins at 6:32 p.m. Totality will last 25 minutes.

Dec. 25: Venus is the Christmas "star," gleaming in the western sky beside a thin crescent moon.