Saturday: International Dark Sky Week was earlier this
month. But that doesn’t mean that we can ignore our obligation to
minimize stray light for the other 51 weeks. Lights that are aimed upward
illuminate the atmosphere and obscure dim objects. Having too much light
shining where it shouldn’t is considered light pollution. And just like other
forms of pollution, light pollution can be hazardous to our health and the
health of other animals. That’s right. Harmful. Watch this National Geographic
video for more information: https://youtu.be/V_A78zDBwYE.
Learn about how you can help at https://darksky.org/.
Sunday: Jupiter is one fist held upright and at arm’s length
above the west-northwestern horizontal 9:00 p.m. Uranus is about a finger width
above it. Jupiter will move up towards Uranus for the rest of the week, passing
it on Sunday. If you follow the two planets with binoculars over the next week,
you’ll see Jupiter moving a lot and Uranus moving only a little with respect to
the background stars, That is because Uranus is much farther away.
Monday: “The crow rises in the southeast,” said spy number
one. “I’m sorry. I don’t recognize that code,” replied spy number two. Spy one
exclaimed, “That’s because it’s not a code, you idiot. I’m talking about the
constellation Corvus the crow.” This very bad spy movie dialogue is to remind
you that Corvus had a very bad life. According to one myth, Corvus brought the
god Apollo the news that his girlfriend was seeing someone else. In a classic
case of punishing the messenger, Apollo turned the formerly beautifully colored
crow black. The box-shaped Corvus is one fist above the southeastern horizon at
9:00 p.m.
Tuesday: Saturn and Mars are less than a half a fist above
the east-southeastern horizon at 5:30 a.m. Saturn is to the right of Mars.
Wednesday: The moon is next to the head of Leo the lion
tonight. The bright star Regulus is a half a fist to the lower left of the moon
at 9:00 p.m.
Thursday: 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.
Friday: Remember the old saying: April showers bring…
meteors. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks over the next week, with the peak of the
peak occurring from Sunday night to Monday 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 above the east-northeast horizon
at midnight tonight and close to straight overhead near dawn. The best time to
observe meteor showers is between midnight and dawn. 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.
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.
All times are Pacific Time unless noted.
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