Skywatch Line for Wednesday and Thursday, April 17 and 18, 2024, written by Alan French
This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Wednesday and Thursday, April 17 and 18, 2024, written by Alan French.
The Sun rises at 6:10 A.M. on Wednesday and sets at 7:40 P.M. On Thursday it rises at 6:08 and sets at 7:42. This Thursday has just under 19 ½ minutes more daylight than last Thursday.
The Moon was at first quarter Monday afternoon and is now moving toward full. On Wednesday the waxing gibbous Moon will rise at 1:31 P.M. in the east northeast. By 9 P.M. it will be high toward the south and appear 71% in sunlight. The Moon is in the constellation, Leo, the Lion. Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, will be just 6 degrees to the Moon’s east (right). The backwards question mark outlining Leo’s head extends upward from Leo. The triangle of stars marking the lion’s rump lies to the Moon’s left and is higher in the sky.
Thursday the Moon will rise at 2:35 P.M. At 9 P.M. the Moon will be 80% sunlit and high toward the south. The Moon is still in Leo but lies below his tail end. The Moon will reach full, the Pink Moon, early next
Tuesday evening.
If you are up before sunrise on Thursday morning and the skies are clear look for Mars and Saturn. The pair will be low and you will need a good view to the east to east southeast to spot the pair. At 5:15 Mars will be 4 degrees above the horizon and shine at magnitude +1.1. Saturn with be south (right) of Mars, 5 degrees away, and just under 6 degrees high. Saturn is almost the same brightness as Mars, shining at magnitude +1.2. The pair will be moving higher but will also be increasingly competing with morning twilight. Binoculars may aid the search.
In our faster, inside orbit, our Earth is slowly catching up with Mars and Saturn. We overtake and pass Mars, on average, every 2 years, and 50 days. We next reach opposition, when Mars is opposite the Sun in our sky, on January 15, 2025. We reach opposition with Saturn on September 8, 2024. At opposition, we are essentially overtaking an outer planet.