{"id":1526,"date":"2014-03-30T00:00:59","date_gmt":"2014-03-30T00:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/?p=1526"},"modified":"2014-03-22T22:49:09","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T22:49:09","slug":"april-2014-astronomy-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/30\/april-2014-astronomy-events\/","title":{"rendered":"April 2014 astronomy events"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u00a1SkyCaramba! Weekly astronomy blog for the week ending April 5, 2014<\/em><\/p>\n<p>April 2014 starts with the crescent moon in the west at sunset. The Hyades, distinguished by their V shape and the orange star Aldebaran, are a little higher. Orion is even higher than that.<\/p>\n<p>Spot Jupiter high in Gemini at sunset. It\u2019s close to the star Mebsuta when April starts. By the end of the month, it\u2019s close to Mekbuda in the other twin.<\/p>\n<p>Sirius in Canis Major is just past the meridian as the sun goes down. Mars is rising close to Spica. And moving westward closer to Porrima by the end of the month. Don\u2019t confuse the red planet with the orange star Arcturus in the same general area. You can see Mars all night every night this month. It\u2019s at opposition on the 8<sup>th<\/sup>. (Check out SkyCaramba\u2019s YouTube video about this for more information.)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Th2aq4o2hGw?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The fourth asteroid discovered, Vesta, will be at opposition on the 13<sup>th<\/sup>. It\u2019s about 1.2 astronomical units (earth-sun) distances away. Ceres, the first asteroid discovered, will be at opposition two nights later. Both are in Virgo. You need dark skies and a telescope to see asteroids, and that\u2019s why you\u2019ll have some trouble with these two no matter where you are. The moon is almost full on the 13<sup>th<\/sup> and is full on the 15<sup>th<\/sup>. (This is also the subject of the aforementioned YouTube video.)<\/p>\n<p>Maybe a lunar eclipse will cut some of the light wash. It\u2019s been three-and-a-half years since most people in the Americas got to see all of a total lunar eclipse. The area from the Americas across the Pacific to Australia will get on one the 15<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>Saturn rises close to midnight at the start of April. By the month\u2019s end, it\u2019s rising at sunset. For viewers in some parts of South America, the moon will pass in front of the ringed planet on the 17<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>Venus is a morning object this month, heading sunward. Neptune will be 0.7\u00b0 from Venus on the 12<sup>th<\/sup>. The moon passes the goddess on the 25<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>The best views of Mercury in April will be early in the month in the southern hemisphere. The messenger is heading for superior conjunction (on the other side of the sun) on the 26<sup>th<\/sup>. Technically, it will be an evening object by the end of the month, but don\u2019t expect to see it yet.<\/p>\n<p>People in just the right places of Australia, Antarctica, and places close by in the ocean will see a solar eclipse in the 29<sup>th<\/sup>. For some, the moon will pass close enough for an annular eclipse.<\/p>\n<p>Meteor watchers should pay attention for Lyrids around the 21<sup>st<\/sup> and 22<sup>nd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a1SkyCaramba!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three objects is up all night, Venus passes by Neptune, the moon is totally eclipsed, and the Lyrid meteors return in April 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[222,486,270,96,487,322,193,176,5,140,386,25,251,250,4,237,30,614,220,78,485,17,484],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1526"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1528,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions\/1528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}