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What’s Up - April 2018
What’s Up For April?
The Moon, Mars and Saturn and the Lyrid meteor shower!
The Moon, Mars and Saturn
The Moon, Mars and Saturn form a pretty triangle in early April, the Lyrid Meteors are visible in late April, peaking high overhead on the 22nd.
You won't want to miss red Mars and golden Saturn in the south-southeast morning skies this month. Mars shines a little brighter than last month.
By the 7th, the Moon joins the pair. From a dark sky you may see some glow from the nearby Milky Way.
Lyrid Meteors
Midmonth, start looking for Lyrid meteors, which are active from April 14 through the 30th. They peak on the 22nd.
The Lyrids are one of the oldest known meteor showers and have been observed for 2,700 years. The first recorded sighting of a Lyrid meteor shower goes back to 687 BC by the Chinese. The pieces of space debris that interact with our atmosphere to create the Lyrids originate from comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. Comet Thatcher was discovered on 5 April 1861 by A. E. Thatcher.
In the early morning sky, a patient observer will see up to more than a dozen meteors per hour in this medium-strength shower, with 18 meteors per hour calculated for the peak. U.S. observers should see good rates on the nights before and after this peak.
A bright first quarter moon plays havoc with sky conditions, marring most of the typically faint Lyrid meteors. But Lyra will be high overhead after the moon sets at midnight, so that's the best time to look for Lyrids.
Jupiter & Juno
Jupiter will also be visible in the night sky this month!
Through a telescope, Jupiter's clouds belts and zones are easy to see.
And watch the Great Red Spot transit--or cross--the visible (Earth-facing) disk of Jupiter every 8 hours.
Our Juno spacecraft continues to orbit this gas giant, too!
And Juno's JunoCam citizen science team is creating exciting images of Jupiter's features based on the latest spacecraft data.
Next month Jupiter is at opposition--when it rises at sunset, sets at sunrise, and offers great views for several months!
Watch the full What’s Up for April Video:
There are so many sights to see in the sky. To stay informed, subscribe to our What’s Up video series on Facebook. Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
What’s Up - March 2018
What’s Up For March?
Several Planets and the Zodiacal Light!
This month, at sunset, catch elusive Mercury, bright Venus, the Zodiacal Light, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter between midnight and dawn!
Both Venus and Mercury play the part of "evening stars" this month. At the beginning of the month they appear low on the western horizon.
The Moon itself joins the pair from March 18th through the 20th.
The Moon skims by the Pleiades star cluster and Taurus's bright red star Aldebaran on the next few evenings, March 21 through the 23rd.
Jupiter, king of the planets, rises just before midnight this month and earlier by month end.
Even through the smallest telescope or average binoculars, you should see the 4 Galilean moons, Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede.
The March morning sky offers dazzling views of Mars and Saturn all month long.
Through a telescope, you can almost make out some of the surface features on Mars.
Look a little farther into Mars' future and circle May 5th with a red marker. When our InSight spacecraft launches for its 6 month journey to the Red Planet, Mars will be easily visible to your unaided eye.
Keep watching Mars as it travels closer to Earth. It will be closest in late July, when the red planet will appear larger in apparent diameter than it has since 2003!
You are in for a real treat if you can get away to a dark sky location on a moonless night this month -- the Zodiacal Light and the Milky Way intersect!
The Zodiacal light is a faint triangular glow seen from a dark sky just after sunset in the spring or just before sunrise in the fall.
The more familiar Milky Way is one of the spiral arms of our galaxy.
What we're seeing is sunlight reflecting off dust grains that circle the Sun in the inner solar system. These dust grains journey across our sky in the ecliptic, the same plane as the Moon and the planets.
Watch the full What’s Up for March Video:
There are so many sights to see in the sky. To stay informed, subscribe to our What’s Up video series on Facebook. Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.