April Skies

by Dick Cookman

April 2, 2024

Highlights: Comet Journal, Martian Landers, Meteor Showers, Planet Plotting, April Moon

Focus Constellations: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Camelopardalis, Lynx, Leo Minor, Canes Venatici, Bootes, Coma Berenices, Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Auriga, Perseus

Comet Journals

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks (2024) is an enormous periodic comet which visits every 71 years. It is easily visible in binoculars and may be seen with the naked eye in dark skies at 4th-5th magnitude as it moves through Taurus in March. Perihelion passage is April 21. It may be visible near the Sun during the total solar eclipse on the 8th. Closest approach to Earth at 1.55 AU (232 million km) is on June 2.

Comet C/2021 S3 (Panstarrs) is a long period 9th magnitude comet within the summer triangle. Perihelion passage was on February 14, 2024. It was brightest on March 1 and passed perigee (closest to Earth) on March 14th. After passing Sagitta on April 1, it will move northward in Cygnus.

Mars Landers

The search for current or pre-existing life on Mars is limited to chemical signatures and evidence for liquid water in suitable environments. The rovers are not capable of collecting evidence of current or fossil microorganisms as they would be too small to image with the rover cameras. The rovers have collected copious chemical and physical evidence for ancient liquid water with pH, temperature and elemental composition appropriate for life. Current conditions appear to limit available water to polar ice caps and frozen ground water. Geological evidence indicates that liquid water once flowed on the surface and collected in ponds, lakes, and possibly even oceans. Geochemical evidence reveals that conditions existed that were favorable for all sorts of aerobic and anaerobic organisms including prokaryotic bacteria, archaebacteria, and more advanced eukaryotes. If present, fossil and modern microorganisms await future missions with rovers capable of microscopic observations. Alternatively, they may be found when the rocks recently collected and stockpiled are returned to Earth.

Meteor Showers

April meteor showers will be subdued by glare from the full moon. The Lyrids are a major shower best seen in the predawn hours high in the southeastern sky when the waxing gibbous Moon is setting in the west. The Pi Puppies are a minor shower visible in southern hemisphere skies.

• Lyrids: April 21-22, 2-4AM. Active Apr. 16-25. Radiant 18h04m +34°. ZHR up to 90. 49 km/sec. Gibbous Moon. Progenitor: Comets Thatcher.

Planet Plottings

A spectacular total solar eclipse occurs on April 8 for states along a strip from Texas to Maine. There will not be another in the continental USA for the next 20 years. Timing of the total eclipse ranges from about 1:30PM CDT in Texas to slightly after 3:00PM in Detroit and just before 3:30PM EDT in northeastern USA.

Night skies provide 5 close approaches of the planets. In the beginning of the month after sunset, western skies display Mercury (-1.8 to 1.2) in Pisces, with Jupiter (-1.9) and Uranus (5.8) in Aries. On the 1st, Mercury sets 45 minutes after the Sun, Jupiter follows 40 minutes later, and Uranus sets 13 minutes later. Jupiter moves to within less than a degree of Uranus on the 20th. The waxing crescent Moon passes Mercury on the 8th, then circuits by Jupiter and Uranus on the 10th.

Morning planets include Venus (-3.8) in Aquarius, Pisces, and Aries, Neptune (-8.0 to 7.9) in Pisces, Mars (1.2 to 1.1) in Aquarius and Pisces, and Saturn (1.1 to 1.2) in Aquarius. Venus approaches within less than a degree of Neptune on the 3rd, Mars links up with Saturn on the 10th and Neptune on the 28th. On the 1st, Mars rises over 2 hours before the Sun and Saturn follows 25 minutes later. Venus makes its appearance after another 42 minutes and after inferior conjunction on the 11th, Mercury starts rising before the Sun as it moves into morning skies and is 0.2° from Venus on the 18th.

The waning crescent Moon appears to pass Mars on the 5th, Saturn on the 6th, then Neptune and Venus on the 7th.

April Moon

April’s New Moon is in Aquarius on the 8th at 2:21PM EDT. It coincides with the total solar eclipse which can be observed in the early afternoon along a 100+ wide strip stretching from Texas to Maine in the USA. The New Moon marks the start of Lunation 1253 which ends 29.38 days later with the New Moon of May in Pisces on the 7th at 11:22PM EDT.

The Full Moon on the 23rd occurs at 7:29PM EDT in Virgo. It is called the Egg, Grass, Easter, or Paschal Moon. Colonial Americans named it the “Planter’s Moon”. To the Celts it was the “Crowing Moon”, and the Chinese refer to it as the “Peony Moon”. Medieval English thought of it as the “Seed Moon”, and the Anishinaabe (Odawa and Ojibwe) people of northern Michigan recognize it as “Boiling Sap Moon” (Iskigamizige-giizis in the eastern dialect and Skigamizige-giizis in the western dialect). Ontario’s Earth Haven Farm presents cultural teachings explaining the cycle of life and nature of the 13 Grandmother Moons. “The fourth moon of Creation is the Sucker Moon, when sucker goes to the Spirit World in order to receive cleansing techniques for this world. When it returns to this realm, it purifies a path for the Spirits and cleanses all our water beings. During this time we can learn to become healed healers.”