Skywatch Line for Friday, April 25, through Sunday, April 27, written by Sam Salem
This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Friday, April 25, through Sunday, April 27, written by Sam Salem.
On Friday, Sun rises at 5:58am and sets at 7:49pm; Moon rises at 4:42am and sets at 5:24pm. New Moon occurs on Sunday at 3:31pm.
About 30 minutes before sunrise on Friday, the thin waning crescent Moon will form a triangle with brilliant Venus and the much dimmer Saturn. Mercury will lie near the horizon and might be difficult to spot.
Mercury and Saturn are barely detectable very deep in the glow of sunrise. However, they’re located under bright markers, Venus and the thin Moon on Friday. Venus stays at nearly the same height and brightness, Saturn creeps a little closer to it, and Mercury moves a bit left while brightening a trace to reach magnitude +0.3 on Friday morning. That morning the thin Moon sits in their midst. Venus and Saturn will be easier to spot next month.
Venus, magnitude –4.7, rises at the very beginning of dawn. Venus will continue to rise at the start of dawn for the rest of April and May. In a telescope as dawn grows bright, Venus is a shrinking, thickening crescent. It will become half lit around the end of May.
Watch the two planets, Mars and Jupiter in the evening sky. They will lie along the path the Sun travels in daytime. As darkness falls, look for bright Jupiter high in the western sky and reddish Mars almost overhead. Jupiter will set before midnight by month’s end and Mars will set a few hours later.
Mars, magnitude +0.8 in the constellation of Cancer, glows high in the southwest in the evening. It sits left of Pollux and Castor in the constellation of Gemini. Mars continues to pull a little farther away from them every day. In a telescope, Mars has shrunk to only 7 arcseconds in diameter.
Look high in the west for Pollux and Castor, the heads of the Gemini twins, lined up almost horizontally. Mars is off to their left. Pollux and Castor form the top of the enormous Arch of Spring. To their lower left spot Procyon, the left end of the Arch. Farther to their lower right is the other end, formed by Menkalinan, Beta Aurigae, and then brilliant Capella. Menkalinan is a binary star system in the northern constellation of Auriga, the Charioteer. It is the second-brightest member of the constellation after Capella.
Jupiter, magnitude –2.0 in the constellation of Taurus, shines bright white in the west in early evening, 42° lower right of Mars along the ecliptic. Jupiter forms a triangle with Taurus’s two horn-tip stars above it. About a fist below Jupiter shines orange Aldebaran. Farther to Jupiter’s lower right are the Pleiades. In a telescope, Jupiter has shrunk to only 34 arcseconds wide.