{"id":895,"date":"2023-04-01T02:20:47","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T02:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=895"},"modified":"2023-04-02T20:09:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T20:09:00","slug":"april-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/april-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"April 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Don’t\nplan on seeing Jupiter this month. April starts with the big planet\nretreating from the evening sky toward solar conjunction on the 11th<\/sup>\nand 12th<\/sup>.\nCoincidentally, Mercury is at greatest elongation at the same time.\nAfter marching into the evening sky, it reaches 19.5\u00b0 east of the\nsun. At that time, the messenger planet is between Cetus and Aries,\na little closer to the star Hamal in the latter than to Menkar in the\nformer. Venus on the same night is by the Pleiades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Venus,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After\ngreatest elongation, mercury appears to keep climbing the night sky\nas the stars behind it sink sunward evening to evening. The planet is\nalso sinking sunward, just not as fast. Give it about six more\nevenings and it will move at their speed. A thin crescent moon passes\nby Mercury on the 21st<\/sup>.\nLook for a Venus-moon pairing on the 23rd<\/sup>\nand 24th<\/sup>.\nBy this time, Venus is above the Hyades V. It will continue climbing\nthe evening sky to end the month near Elnath in Auriga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Venus,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Higher\nin the west in the evening is Mars, starting the month at the feet of\nGemini on the Castor side of the constellation. The red planet passes\nby Mebsuta on the 14th<\/sup>.\nMars is between the twins on the 26th<\/sup>\nwhen the moon passes by. The planet’s somewhat close to Wasat at\nmonth’s end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mars<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Venus<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saturn’s\nin Aquarius all month. See it rising close to dawn. A thinning\ncrescent moon is close on the 16th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Saturn<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon’s phases this month: full on the 6th<\/sup>,\nlast quarter on the 13th<\/sup>,\nnew on the 20th<\/sup>,\nfirst quarter on the 27th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon’s positions: over the equator going south on the 5th<\/sup>,\nsouthern lunistice on the 12th<\/sup>\nat 28.0\u00b0, over the equator going north on the 18th<\/sup>,\nand at northern lunistice on the 25th<\/sup>\nat 28.0\u00b0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon’s extreme distances: perigee on the 16th<\/sup>\nat 368,000 km, apogee on the 28th<\/sup>\nat 404,400 km.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nasteroid Juno is at perihelion on the 2nd<\/sup>\nat 297 million km from the sun. That’s 1.985 astronomical units.\nVenus is at perihelion on the 17th<\/sup>\nat 107 million km. That’s 0.718 a.u.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nApril Lyrid meteor shower is expected to peak on the 22nd<\/sup>.\nThe moon’s just after new, so it won’t spoil the view. The much\nbigger threat is light pollution. You may see up to 18 meteors per\nhour at best. The peak is broad enough to see nearly that many for a\nfew nights in a row, perhaps for a week. As the name tells you, the\nmeteors seem to come from Lyra. That’s a northern constellation up in\nthe morning this time of year. So the best views will be from the\nnorthern hemisphere after midnight. The meteors come from a comet\nthat hasn’t been close to the sun since 1861. It has a 415-year\norbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Visibility<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If\nthe meteor shower isn’t the most talked about astronomical event this\nmonth, number one will likely be the solar eclipse visible from\nsoutheast Asia, part of the Indian Ocean, Australia, and part of the\nPacific. Most of those places get a partial eclipse, of course. Over\na period of about three hours, 15 minutes, the moon’s central shadow\nwill track from near the Kerguelen Islands, by the northwest coast of\nAustralia, across Indonesia, and through the Caroline Islands region\nof Micronesia. For most of the way along that central track, the\neclipse is total. Around the middle of it, totality lasts up to one\nminute, 15 seconds. For just a few seconds at the beginning and again\nfor a few seconds at the end, it’s an annular eclipse. This earns it\nthe label \u201chybrid eclipse\u201d in some accounts. Only when the\neclipse is total is it safe to look at with the unprotected eye. At\nall other times, you must use eye protection made specifically for\nsolar viewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a1SkyCaramba!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don’t plan on seeing Jupiter this month. April starts with the big planet retreating from the evening sky toward solar conjunction on the 11th and 12th. Coincidentally, Mercury is at greatest elongation at the same time. After marching into the evening sky, it reaches 19.5\u00b0 east of the sun. At that time, the messenger planet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-62"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}