Saturday: Mars is about a half a fist to the lower right of the moon. They are six fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwestern horizon at 9:30 p.m.
Sunday: Astronomers are often fascinated with large objects.
Planets that could hold 1000 Earths (Jupiter). Stars that would fill up the
entire inner Solar System (Betelgeuse). Galaxies with 400 billion stars (Milky
Way). But what about the smallest objects? Until recently, the smallest known
stars were about five times the mass of Jupiter. However, in 2023, a pair of
astronomers looking at the Orion Nebula think they discovered pairs of binary
brown dwarf stars just a little more massive than Jupiter. If confirmed, that
could cause a substantial change in the accepted theory of star formation. For
more on the smallest star, go to https://www.science.org/content/article/astronomers-may-have-spotted-smallest-possible-stars.
You can’t see these stars. But you can see the Orion Nebula one and a half
fists above the west-southwestern horizon at 9:30 p.m.
Monday: April is officially known as Global Astronomy Month.
Of course, if you are reading this column, every month can be astronomy month.
For more information about online events, go to https://my.astronomerswithoutborders.org/programs/global-astronomy-month/gam2025-main997
Tuesday: The stars in the Hyades Cluster are all young, as
stars are judged, formed in the same cloud of gas and dust a few hundred
million years ago. But just as children move away from home, the stars of the
Hyades Cluster are slowly drifting apart. Millennia from now, future sky
watchers will see these stars as random points of light in the sky and not as a
family. I hope they at least call home every so often. For more information, go
to https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/end-hyades-star-cluster/.
The Hyades Cluster is two fists above due west at 9:30 p.m.
Wednesday: You probably didn’t know this, but several
British New Wave bands were really into astronomy. Take the band “Dead or
Alive” (please). The original lyrics to their song “You Spin Me Round (Like a
Record)" were actually: “You spin me right round, baby, right round, like
the Whirlpool Galaxy, right round, round, round.” (Well, that’s what I thought
they were.) The Whirlpool Galaxy was the first galaxy seen to have a spiral
shape. Since then, astronomers have discovered that many galaxies, including
our own Milky Way Galaxy, have a spiral shape. Go to https://esahubble.org/images/heic0506a/
for more information about the Whirlpool Galaxy. Go to your small telescope to
find the Whirlpool Galaxy in the night sky. It is in the constellation Canes
Venatici, the hunting dogs. At 10:00 p.m., find Alkaid, the end star of the Big
Dipper handle, five and a half fists above the east-northeastern horizon. The
Whirlpool Galaxy is two fingers to the upper right of Alkaid.
Thursday: Venus is about a half a fist above due east at
5:30 a.m.
Friday: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks later this month. But
there will be increased meteor activity in the vicinity of the constellation
Lyra until then. 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
one and a half fists above due northeast at 10:00 p.m. and close to straight
overhead near dawn. Go to https://earthsky.org/?p=158735
for more information.
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.
