If we’re looking to gaze at the bright planets as soon as darkness falls this spring, we’re out of luck.
Planets Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter are all now in our eastern sky at dawn. That leaves only dim and distant Uranus and a brief appearance by Mercury in our spring evening sky.
But early risers, say 6 a.m., with an unobstructed view to the east, can catch a rapidly changing arrangement of four bright planets in the coming weeks.
The brightest and most noticeable planet at dawn is Venus. At dawn on Wednesday, Venus will appear to make a triangle with dimmer planets Mars and Saturn.
On the morning of April 5, Venus will still hang to the left of Mars and Saturn but Mars and Saturn will appear very close together.
By April 15 Venus, Mars and Saturn will appear in a nearly straight line. Around that date, Jupiter will start to come into view to the lower left of Venus, adding a fourth planet to the line-up hanging diagonally across the eastern dawn sky.
But there’s more to come.
On the morning of April 27, the waning crescent moon will hang below Jupiter and Venus with planets Mars and Saturn glowing higher to the upper right.
Free public viewing
For the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has nixed most all public outreach viewing sessions where the public can check out night sky targets through telescopes.
But if skies are clear on Friday evening, April 8, join Methodist University geologist John Dembosky and me at the Jordan soccer complex at the end of Treetop Drive off Ramsey Street. We plan on having our telescopes set up near the concession stand.
The free 7-9 p.m. observing session will miss those four bright planets at dawn, but we will target the first quarter moon in the evening sky and probably the Orion Nebula.
The moon’s first quarter phase on the night of April 8 is a great time to observe the moon with a telescope. Unlike a full moon that is nearly shadow-free, the quarter moon has a sharply defined line called the terminator that divides the moon’s sunlit and shadowed halves. Along the terminator is where lunar craters and mountains stand out dramatically in a telescope view.
Clear skies are needed for the session, so if it’s cloudy the event is canceled.
If you’re in the Atlantic Beach/Morehead City area that same evening, the Crystal Coast Stargazers astronomy club will also offer a free public viewing session at the beach access area at Fort Macon State Park. It also starts at 7 p.m. and is also canceled in case of cloudy skies.
Get ready for an eclipse
It’s a few weeks away, but one of the most spectacular astronomical events of 2022 will happen late on the night of Sunday, May 15. If you’re up for wishing for clear skies on one evening during this year, make those wishes for May 15 around midnight.
That evening the full moon will plunge into Earth’s shadow during a total eclipse of the moon.
It will be the first total lunar eclipse visible here since Jan. 21, 2019. We had an almost total eclipse of the moon back on Nov. 19, but a tiny sliver of the moon remained in sunlight at greatest eclipse.
During the May eclipse the reddish, totally eclipsed moon will hang low in the south near the summer Milky Way.
I’ll have more information on the May 15 eclipse as well as how to photograph it in my April column on April 25.
Between now and then is a good time to make sure any telescopes or binoculars are in good working order. The eclipse should offer some dramatic and unhurried views of the dim eclipsed moon late that night.
If you have a question about astronomy, send it to Backyard Universe P.O. Box 297, Stedman, NC 28391 or email johnnyhorne937@gmail.com
https://www.fayobserver.com/story/lifestyle/2022/03/28/fayetteville-nc-planetary-moon-public-viewing/7120984001/
2022-03-28 09:06:20Z
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