The Sky This Week: April 5 – 10

Tuesday, April 5
Saturn rises shortly after midnight local daylight time this week and climbs highest in the south just as morning twilight starts to paint the sky. The ringed planet shines at magnitude 0.3 among the much fainter background stars of southern Ophiuchus. A telescope reveals Saturn’s 17″-diameter disk surrounded by a spectacular ring system that spans 40″ and tilts 26° to our line of sight.

Wednesday, April 6
Although Jupiter reached opposition and peak visibility about a month ago (on March 8), it remains a stunning sight from dusk until the start of morning twilight. The giant planet shines at magnitude –2.4 among the background stars of Leo the Lion. Turn a telescope on Jupiter and you will see a 43″-diameter disk with lots of atmospheric detail. The world’s four major moons put on a great show tonight as well. Innermost Io begins to transit Jupiter at 9:52 p.m. EDT, and its shadow follows 40 minutes later. The planet then occults Europa at 10:48 p.m. Next in line is Ganymede, the solar system’s largest moon, which starts to transit the gas giant at 1:01 a.m. At 2:54 a.m., Europa emerges from Jupiter’s shadow about one planet radius east of the limb. The final events occur as Jupiter sinks toward the western horizon. Ganymede’s large shadow first touches the planet’s cloud tops at 3:45 a.m.; then, a half-hour later, the giant moon’s transit ends.

Thursday, April 7
New Moon occurs at 7:24 a.m. EDT. At its New phase, the Moon crosses the sky with the Sun and so remains hidden by our star. Because the Moon reaches perigee, the closest point in its orbit around Earth, only six hours later (at 1:36 p.m. EDT), residents in coastal areas can expect higher than normal tides for the next few days. At perigee, the center of the Moon lies 221,931 miles (357,163 kilometers) from Earth’s center.

Saturday, April 9
One of the spring sky’s finest deep-sky objects, the Beehive star cluster (M44) in the constellation Cancer the Crab, lies high in the south after darkness falls. With naked eyes under a dark sky, you should be able to spot this star group as a faint cloud even though a crescent Moon also occupies the evening sky. But the Beehive explodes into dozens of stars through binoculars or a small telescope.
Uranus is in conjunction with the Sun at 5 p.m. EDT. From our earthly perspective, this means the distant planet lies behind the Sun and so is out of sight. Uranus will return to view in the morning sky in May.

Sunday, April 10
The waxing crescent Moon appears just above the 1st-magnitude star Aldebaran in this evening’s sky. Binoculars provide the best view of this close conjunction because they also clearly reveal the neighboring Hyades, a V-shaped star cluster that Aldebaran appears to anchor. For residents of the United States, the Moon appears to pass in front of Aldebaran during the afternoon hours, at approximately 6 p.m. EDT (3 p.m. PDT).
 

Source

Astronomy Magazine

 

Your Daily Solar & Lunar Information for Tuesday, April 5th

Solar
Sun Direction: ↑ 110.48° ESE
Sun Altitude: 34.49°
Sun Distance: 93.016 million mi
Next Solstice: Jun 20, 2016 5:34 PM (Summer)
Sunrise Today: 6:34 AM↑ 81° East
Sunset Today: 7:21 PM↑ 279° West
Length of day: 12 hours, 47 minutes

 

Lunar
Moon Direction: ↑ 143.23° SE
Moon Altitude: 41.56°
Moon Distance: 224595 mi
Next New Moon: Apr 7, 20166:23 AM
Next Full Moon: Apr 22, 201612:23 AM
Next Moonset: Today5:29 PM
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent
Illumination: 5.3%

 

Source

timeanddate.com