The daffodils are well up and skies are clearer more of the time. Time to crank up interest in skygazing once again!
At dawn, April 4, there will be a total eclipse of the Moon, but the further west you are in the U.S., the better you will see it. In Arkansas, the Moon will set in the west during the eclipse. The best we can see is just a bit of it as it disappears over the western horizon.
In the evening, Jupiter shines overhead and Venus is that very bright star-like object in the west after sunset. On the evening of March 22, you may have noticed a very nice line-up of the crescent Moon and Venus, side by side, heading for setting together in the west.
Again at dawn on April 8, Saturn will shine about 3 degrees from the waning moon. It will be somewhat yellow in color and it will not twinkle. This would be a good time to find Saturn if you have never found it before.
On April 19, Mercury and a very faint and small Mars will be visible near a thin crescent Moon. This would be something to try to see with binoculars because both planets would be a difficult naked-eye challenge for most. I certainly know it would be a challenge for my ancient naked eyes!
Starting on the evening of the 22nd of April, the weak Lyrid meteor shower is best observed from 11 p.m. until dawn. This is one of those meteor showers that I personally would not wait up for: I mention it at all because some of you could be out driving at this time in the evening and you might see a fairly bright meteor cross the sky and wonder what it was. You could say to yourself, "I saw a Lyrid meteor!" When you get to bed that night, you can fall asleep thinking about what you saw....
At sunset on April 30, Mercury makes its best showing of 2015. It will be low in the west-north-west. It will look star-like and fairly bright and a medium-sized telescope (six inches or larger) would most likely show it as a tiny planet with a phase.
A full Moon will occur on April 4 and, technically, it will be at 8:05 a.m. but you could see it earlier at dawn if you were up this early.
The constellation Orion will fade to the west in April, replaced by the constellation Leo the Lion and other constellations associated with the onset of summer. The whole area around Leo is filled with faint galaxies that can be seen well with a 10-inch telescope or larger. If one finds some of these galaxies in one's eyepiece, what is being seen are members of the nearest large cluster of galaxies known as the Coma-Virgo group. Our galaxy is an outlier to this very large cluster of galaxies, containing some 4,500 members. The scope I have can pick out members of this cluster out to about 40-or-50 million light years! On the one hand, this is really amazing and awe-inspiring. Little me, a tiny and very ordinary human being is able to see that far into the universe! On the other hand, the visible universe is at least 13.7 billion light years in radius and this makes 40-or-50 million light years small indeed.
The universe is a magnificent creation. Don't miss it -- look up!
-- Dr. David Cater is a former faculty member of JBU. Email him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
General News on 04/01/2015