Saturday: Do you miss public astronomy events? The virtual telescope project is having a virtual star party today at noon Pacific Daylight time. Go to https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/ for more details and the link to the event.
Sunday: Remember the old saying: April showers bring… meteors. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks this week, with the peak of the peak occurring Thursday morning. The meteors appear to come from a point to the right of the bright bluish star Vega in the constellation Lyra the lyre. This point is about three fists held upright and at arm’s length above the east-northeast horizon at midnight tonight and close to straight overhead near dawn. The best time to look is a few hours before dawn since that is when the radiant, or point from which the meteors appear to come, is high in the sky. This year, the Moon is trending towards the waxing gibbous phase meaning it will be above the horizon until after midnight. Typically, this is one of the least interesting major meteor showers of the year, with 10-20 bright, fast meteors per hour. However, it is also one of the most unpredictable. As recently as 1982, there were 90 meteors visible during a single hour. In addition, the Lyrid meteor shower has historical interest because it was one of the first ones observed. Chinese records say “stars fell like rain” in the shower of 687 B.C. As your Mother might say, dress warm and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment. Meteors are tiny rocks that hit the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. For more information, go to http://earthsky.org/?p=158735.
Monday: The Twins are next to the Moon tonight. Pollux, the brighter of the two main stars in the constellation Gemini the Twins, is a half a fist to the upper right of the Moon at 9:00 p.m. Castor is another half a fist to the upper right of Pollux.
Tuesday: Mars is nearly four fists above the western horizon at 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday: Do people think you have a magnetic personality? The star Cor Caroli understands how you feel. Cor Caroli has one of the strongest magnetic fields among main sequence stars similar to our Sun. This strong magnetic field is thought to produce large sunspots that cause the brightness of Cor Caroli to vary. Cor Caroli is nearly straight overhead at midnight.
Thursday: While you are up looking at the Lyrid meteor shower, check out the naked eye planets, as well. At 5:00 a.m., bright Jupiter is exactly one fist above the east-southeastern horizon. Saturn is one and a half fists to the upper right of Jupiter.
Friday: The Stargate movies and TV shows have access to a portal to other planets. Harry Potter has access to a portal to the Chamber of Secrets. You have access to a Portal to the Universe. This portal is not in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom but is on the web at http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/. It is a repository of up-to-date astronomy news, blogs, and podcasts. A recent story highlights how Jupiter might be an excellent dark matter detector. Dark matter got its name because it has gravity, like matter does, and it can’t (yet) be seen, like something dark. But dark matter isn’t something that is only located in exotic, far away places. The Earth’s gravity attracts dark matter. But only a little. Jupiter is massive enough to capture a lot of dark matter. And it is cool enough so the dark matter would not have evaporated away. Read more about Jupiter: the Goldilocks of dark matter, at https://www.universetoday.com/150824/jupiter-could-make-an-ideal-dark-matter-detector/.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
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