Heather Ainsley
reporter3.riverbendnews@gmail.com
For those who enjoy looking skyward, March proved to be an interesting month, with the presence of several neighboring planets visible in the nighttime sky, as well as the emergence of a complete lunar eclipse. The year is still getting underway, and there is plenty to look forward to in the upcoming weeks of April.
While it isn't a planetary parade, per se, there will be a planetary alignment in April, during which four of Earth's planet neighbors will be visible in alignment with one another in the morning sky of Thursday, April 17. Three of the four planets will be visible to the naked eye: Mercury, Saturn and Venus. Neptune will be present in the alignment, but will only be visible through high-powered binoculars or a telescope.
While this alignment is certainly one of the more noticeable observances as far as planets go, there is a lot of movement among the planets this month, which gives onlookers the ability to observe several conjunctions. In astronomy, a conjunction is when two or more celestial objects appear close together in the sky. on Wednesday night, April 2, Jupiter and the moon formed a conjunction, which was most visible just after dusk. Jupiter appeared very bright next to the moon.
Earlier in the month, star-gazers could observe a conjunction between Mars and the moon on Saturday, April 5, which was visible toward the west, near the Gemini constellation. Mars was fairly bright and appeared to have a red tint. Following this will be a conjunction on Thursday, April 10, between Mercury and Saturn, visible to the naked eye but may be difficult to locate due to proximity to the horizon.
Later in the month, on Friday, April 25, the moon will be joined in conjunction with Venus and Saturn. The moon will be just a sliver of a crescent, and the planets will be visible to the right, with Venus being higher and brighter than Saturn, which will be about level with the moon and dimmer. It will be easiest to view this conjunction in an area that is dark, with little to no light interference.
While the conjunctions of the planets are exciting in and of themselves, there is a special event involving just Mercury this month, as it will reach what is called "greatest elongation" and will reach a point that is its farthest visible distance from the sun. Its usual close proximity to the sun makes it very difficult to safely look at, so this event, which takes place on Easter Monday, April 21, is the best time to try and observe this fiery little planet.
The full moon is special this month, as it will rise on Sunday, April 13, as the Paschal Moon. A Paschal moon is the first full moon to occur on or after the spring equinox, which took place on March 21. It is the Paschal Moon that determines the dates of the Christian holiday of Easter. The holiday is always held on the first Sunday that follows the Paschal Moon, which means this year, Easter will fall on Sunday, April 20. The Paschal Moon is also referred to as a "pink moon," despite not being any more pink in color than usual; April's full moon is called a pink moon in reference to the emergence of early spring flowers that bloom around the same time as the moon reaches peak fullness.
April is also the time for the Lyrid meteor shower, which starts around Tuesday, April 15, and continues through the end of the month. Despite how long it occurs, the peak time for viewing is between Monday, April 21 and Tuesday, April 22, when the shower will reach an average meteor rate of 18 meteors per hour. Visibility may be impacted slightly by the presence of the waning moon, so interested viewers should plan to watch for meteors in the early hours before dawn after the moon has set. It is recommended that individuals allow their eyes to adjust to the darkness completely before expecting to see anything major and to view from a location that does not have a lot of light interference.
Every meteor shower has what is called a "radiant point," which is used to describe where the meteors appear to originate as they make their way into our sky (and our line of sight). By finding the radiant point, viewers can increase their chances of seeing meteors. The radiant point for the Lyrids is the constellation Lyra. Rather than looking directly at the constellation, viewers may enjoy more meteor appearances by viewing the area around it. Visibility may include bright fireballs with lingering trails in the sky.
While the Lyrids shower is not the most flamboyant of the meteor showers we can expect this year, it has frequently been known to display what is called "outbursts," large surges of activity that can show up to 100 meteors per hour. These outbursts are impossible to predict but make for a very pleasant surprise. The Lyrid meteors are remnants of a comet named Thatcher (C/1861G1).
The Riverbend News would like to extend a special thank you to reader Milt Hays, Jr., who read our March story about celestial events and took some excellent photographs of the lunar eclipse and sent them in to us. If anyone is able to capture a clear image of one of the April celestial events, you may submit photos for possible publication with our upcoming May article.
Submitted photos can be sent to Heather Ainsley at Riverbend's sister paper, Monticello News, at reporter2@ecbpublishing.com.
