Astronomy News

In Connecticut, we will get a partial eclipse if we are lucky enough to have even partly cloudy skies this Saturday. The important eclipse times for our area (SE CT) are

• The partial eclipse (first contact) starts at 12:15 p.m. EDT

• Maximum eclipse occurs at 1:25 p.m. EDT. The Sun will be obscured by almost 20% at maximum eclipse. (See the interactive site maps linked below.)

• The partial eclipse ends for us  at 14:36 p.m. EDT.

For those of you who are not on located in South-Eastern Connecticut, you can use the Time and Date or NASA Eclipse Explorer websites linked below to get the eclipse times for your area.

For any of you who live close to the Connecticut College campus,  the CC Astronomy club and members of the Department of Physics, Astronomy and Geophysics will be holding an eclipse watch party starting from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30p.m. on Tempel Green, weather and skies permitting. (If you can't see the Sun, then there will be no campus watch party.) Solar eclipse glasses will be available for attendees and telescopes will be set up for viewing the Sun safely, again weather permitting.

Furthermore, the East Lyme Public Library and Community Center will be hosting an eclipse watch party and solar eclipse event from noon to 2pm that day, rain or shine - it is free and open to the public. At this event, there will be both indoor and outdoor activities. These include telescopic solar eclipse viewing (outdoor, weather permitting), planetarium shows, live streams of the eclipse from the path of annularity, and hands-on games and crafts for kids and families (indoor, rain or shine). If you haven't already received it from Diane,  the East Lyme Library eclipse event poster is attached below for more details.

If you prefer to stay home, you can stream the annular eclipse at one of the following live-stream sites:

> Time and Date - live from Roswell, New Mexico :   https://www.timeanddate.com/live/eclipse-solar-2023-october-14

> The Exploratorium - live from the Valley of the Gods, Utah:  https://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/livestream

>  NASA live stream - from Kerrville, TX, and Albuquerque, NM. You can also watch on the NASA YouTube channel:  https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2023/2023-annular-eclipse-broadcast/

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Some eclipse education sites:

> NASA - eclipse education and  resources pages:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/events/2023/10/14/watch-the-annular-solar-eclipse/

>  NASA's interactive eclipse explorer - web simulation tool

https://eclipse-explorer.smce.nasa.gov/

  > Time and Date:

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2023-october-14

> American Astronomical Society (AAS):

https://eclipse.aas.org/eclipse-america-2023-2024

Let's hope for clear-enough skies this Saturday.

Leslie

--

Leslie F. Brown, Ph. D.

Education and programming, Stars to STEM, Inc.

Emerita Associate Professor, Physics, Astronomy & Geophysics

Connecticut College

New London, CT USA

Tonight (August 30, 2023) we will be treated to a  Full, Blue Supermoon. If the weather forecasters have predicted tonight's sky conditions correctly, the grey clouds should be moving out late this afternoon in the New London Country area. So there is hope for clear skies tonight!

According to the newer definition of the term Blue Moon, a "blue moon" is the second full Moon occurring in a single month. We observed the  first of August's two full Sturgeon Moons on August 1st. The second full Moon of the month occurs tonight (August 31st) and as the second of the month, tonight's full Moon is the "Blue" one. And no, its color will not be blue :(

But there's more! Tonight's full Moon will be a full Supermoon, the second supermoon this month.  When our moon reaches perigee (its closest approach to the Earth), and is at full phase, it is referred to as a full Supermoon. Because such a full moon is closer to the Earth, it appears a bit larger and some 15% brighter than a normal full moon.  Blue Moons do not have to be Supermoons and usually are not. The fact that we are getting two full Moons this month, and both of them are Supermoons, is what makes this event rare. Our friends at NASA have determined that the next such Blue Supermoon will not be seen until January 2037! Enjoy it now.

Fun fact:  Tonight's supermoon  will appear a tiny bit larger and brighter than our previous two 2023 Supermoons or the next Harvest full Supermoon in September (9/29), making it the largest full Moon of 2023. Get out your binoculars and enjoy the views of this  full, Blue SuperDuper Moon!

Dancing with the Blue Supermoon tonight is Saturn, which this August graces the constellation of Aquarius. The ringed gas-giant reached opposition a few days ago, on August 27th. When a superior planet, one with an orbital radius larger than the Earth's,  is located at a sky position known as opposition, that planet is found on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun. When at opposition, a celestial body rises at sunset, sets at sunrise, and is highest in our sky at midnight, giving you the opportunity to view the object  at any time of the night.  The Moon is also at opposition when it is full, so tonight you will be able to view both the Blue Supermoon and Saturn close together on the sky, both rising around sunset and setting about sunrise, and both up all night as you likely have been prepping for the start of the Fall 2023 term . So take a break from your devices and enjoy this distant beauty, a mere 1.46 billion kilometers from Earth now, with binoculars along with the Blue Supermoon.

Ad astra,

Leslie

This week for election day and just a day after the switch back to Standard time from Daylight Saving time, we will be treated to a total lunar eclipse  of the full Beaver Moon a few hours before dawn on Tuesday, November 8th. For once, it looks like the weather may favor us and we will be treated to clear skies overnight Monday into Tuesday morning. Keep your fingers crossed!

For residents of  southeastern Connecticut, this lunar eclipse's partial phase will start at 4:09a.m. EST. Look to the west-northwest. The Moon will be at an altitude of about 23 degrees when the partial phase of this eclipse begins.  As the eclipse progresses, the moon sinks towards the horizon,  dropping lower and lower in the sky as we approach moonset in eclipse. This means that in order to watch this eclipse and follow it until the Moon sets, you will want  to have a viewing spot with a clear, unobstructed view to the west and northwest. The partial phase will look something like the first image shown below.

The Moon passes fully into the Earth's shadow and turns a dull reddish color at  5:16 a.m - this is the start of the full phase of the eclipse.  As you watch the Moon, also notice the other interesting celestial treasures hanging out in close proximity to the Moon.  Almost directly above the Moon you will find the Pleiades, aka the Seven Sisters, in Taurus. This open cluster of stars is a great binocular target and you will want to have your binoculars at the ready for watching the lunar eclipse. Red Mars will also be noticeable not far from the Moon this evening.  Look above the Moon and to the left, about 45 to 50 degrees off your west horizon to spot Mars.   Plus, with  a pair of decent household binoculars (e.g., 6x20, 7x50, 10x42...), you can  spot Uranus a mere 2.3 degrees above and slightly to the left of the Moon. How cool is that!

The second graphic shows two "points" that look like blue dots with spikes shooting out of them. These two "points" are the radiants of the Northern and the Southern Taurid meteor showers, collectively known as the Taurids meteor shower as the two showers overlap each other in duration. Both meteor showers are active for the week before, during and after the total lunar eclipse, and this year are expected to produce some brilliant fireballs. So keep an eye open for bright, shooting stars on the morning of the 8th during the eclipse when the Moon's light won't wash out these meteors.

Mid or maximum eclipse happens at 5:59 a.m. Eastern. Since we are approaching sunrise, eclipse totality will play out  10 degrees or less of your west-northwest horizon and against the glow of the dawn sky.  The total  phase ends at 6:42 a.m. very close to the time of moonset and sunrise. That means for us East-coasters, we do not get to see the entirety of this lunar eclipse unfold. Our consolation prize is to be treated to seeing the Moon set in full eclipse as dawn approaches. Again, if you wish to follow the eclipse until moonset and sunrise, make sure you are viewing from a location that is dark with a clear unobstructed view to the west-southwest.

Summary of the November 8th, 2022 total lunar eclipse timings for our area

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Phase               Start                      End               Visible

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Partial              4:09 a.m.             5:16 a.m.                  Yes

Total                  5:16 a.m.             6:42 a.m.                   The beginning is, not the end.

Mid-eclipse   5:59 a.m.                                              Yes. Will be tough to see - Moon 5 degs from horizon.

Partial              6:42 a.m.              7:49 a.m.                  No. Moon has set and the Sun has risen.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our friends and family who live to our west will be able to see more, if not all, of this eclipse. How much more depends on their location and time zone.  Essentially all folks in the US living around or west of  Minneapolis, MN down to Midland TX will be able to see both partial phases and all of the total phase before the Moon sets, Hawaii and the US west coast being ideally located for this event. If you would like tims of this eclipse for locations other than SE Connecticut, please visit https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2022-november-8

What's next eclipse-wise?

The pickings are slim to none for us in 2023 as it relates to either lunar or solar eclipses. In fact, the next visible-in-SE-Connecticut partial or total lunar eclipse will not occur until March 13-14, 2025.  We can find comfort in the fact that the path of totality of the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse crosses the continental US from Maine through Texas.  If you missed the last US total solar eclipse in 2018, make sure to catch this one as we will not have another total solar eclipse here in the US for a long time, 2044 and 2045 to be exact. For more on eclipses, see Fred Espenak's eclipse page:  https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html

For more information about this eclipse including a list of sites where you can see the whole eclipse from start to end live-streamed, check out this excellent article from Sky and Telescope: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/election-eclipse-last-total-lunar-eclipse-till-2025/. This event will also be live-streamed by  TimeandDate.com as well as many other organizations, many of which will be webcasting this eclipse on their YouTube channels.

If you get any images of this eclipse with your cell phone or digital camera, please share them with me. Thank you in advance. I wish you clear skies and enjoyable viewing.

Leslie

The Near-Future

Lunar eclipses often happen in pairs and often accompanied by solar eclipses, unfortunately not always visible from your location! Not only will we be treated to a total lunar eclipse this May, but we will be able to see the November 8, 2022 total lunar eclipse. The partial eclipse phases of this second lunar extravaganza will begin a few hours before sunrise. The Moon just after maximum eclipse, still in its total phase, will set in eclipse at dawn. We are not so lucky when it comes to the solar eclipse of this triptych. This partial solar eclipse occurs in October 2022, and  unless you are traveling to certain countries overseas, you won't be able to view it except online.

In Case of Poor Weather

In case the New England skies don't cooperate next Sunday eve and Monday morning, you can watch our May 15-16, 2022 lunar eclipse online. Here are some sites that will be live-streaming this event:

Time and Date: https://www.timeanddate.com/live/eclipse-lunar-2022-may-16

NASA: NASA.gov/live . They will also be streaming on YouTube and Facebook.

Here's wishing you a beautiful May, a great start of spring 2022 as well as wonderful weather next week for eclipse viewing.

Ad Luna and Beyond,

Leslie Brown

Education Director, Stars to STEM, Inc.

Associate Professor, Department of Astronomy, Geophysics and Physics

Connecticut College, New London, CT

(Please ask permission before reusing this article or portions of its contents. Thank you. -LFB)

Happy 2022 Everyone! Few people want to brave the cold January nights to stargaze, but hopefully we can tempt you to try. First, if you have never seen Mercury, the early evening of January 12th when Mercury is 19.2 degrees from the Sun is the time to grab your binoculars and view this "evening star". Look for elusive Mercury very close to the SW horizon, at altitudes ranging from 13 degrees to 7 degrees between about 4:35 to 5:30 P.M. EST respectively. 

To find the messenger planet, first locate the Moon, then a bit west of, and closer to your horizon than the Moon, spot bright Jupiter. Below Jupiter and further west, look for fainter Saturn and finally below and west of Saturn you will see bright Mercury. These three planets are strung out like pearls in the sky, all spaced within 25 degrees of each other. (If you hold your hand at arm's length and spread your fingers widely, the angle between the tips of your thumb and pinky spans an arc-length of about 25 degrees.) Be aware that Mercury will be difficult to spot since it will be easily lost in the last glimmers of the setting Sun. I recommend searching for Mercury with binoculars if you can't spot it naked-eye. See the diagram below for the Southwest-facing sky view on January 12th, at about 5:00 P.M. EST, to help you locate this inner planet.

And as we leave perihelion in the rearview mirror, note that the amount of daylight that we receive in the Northern hemisphere is increasing by small amounts, roughly 2 minutes, each day. By January 18th, we will have gained a whole hour of extra daylight since the December solstice. Yea! And it just keeps getting lighter and warmer until the June solstice. 

You might wonder if civilizations set the date for the start of a new calendar year to occur when Earth is closest to the Sun. Not so. The setting of this date is an accident of history mixed with religious and cultural traditions. The celebration of January 1st as the start of the year was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC with the adoption of the Sun-based calendar bearing his name. At that time, most cultures used very different religious cultural calendars and not the Julian calendar used by Rome, many celebrating the start of the New Year on the December or June Solstice, the March Equinox or other significant culturally significant dates. It was only in the 16th century with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar that countries around the world slowly (took over 400 years) accepted a universally-used civilian calendar with January 1st as the start of the year. Numerous examples of cultural and religious calendars still exist today, used alongside of the Gregorian civil calendar, all of which may be a bit overwhelming to keep track of, but do give us many opportunities to celebrate another journey around the Sun each year. So, here's wishing you all many Happy New Years!

All the best,

Leslie Brown

What a month this November is for sky watchers! Right now you can easily spot Venus in the early evening sky following the Sun down to the western horizon. Venus  will be easily seen to the west in the late afternoon and early twilight as the brilliant "evening" star throughout November into late December when it will once again disappear into the glare of the Sun. Trailing to the east of Venus are our friends Saturn  and Jupiter. Jupiter is the second brightest object in the sky now and will jump out at you right after sunset, but it will need to be fairly dark before you can easily spot Saturn. These bright planets will be with us throughout this month, with Jupiter and Saturn approaching closer and closer in the sky to Venus. Towards the end of this month these amigos will align in your south-south-west sky creating some beautiful early evening celestial views for you and your family.

The full Beaver Moon will occur on November 19th , this Friday. The Moon must be full for a lunar eclipse to be produced. And we are getting a lunar eclipse in the wee hours of November 19th as the Moon passes into the Earth's umbra, the dark, central portion of the Earth's shadow, We will be treated to an almost full lunar eclipse. Technically, for us in SE Connecticut, this eclipse will be a partial lunar eclipse, but it is very close to a full one, nonetheless. For us, the partial umbral eclipse starts in the early hours of 11/19 at 2:18 a.m. EST; the maximum eclipse will be seen at 4:02 a.m. EST, and the visible portion of this lunar event ends at 5:47 a.m. EST, a bit less than an hour before sunrise. Should the skies be cloudy on this date or you just can't stay awake until the early hours of the morning, several organizations will be hosting live streams of this event either on their own sites or on YouTube. Here are some live stream links to explore:

• https://www.timeanddate.com/live/eclipse-lunar-2021-november-19 

• https://www.assa.org.au/live

For more information about this lunar eclipse, visit any of the following sites:

• http://mreclipse.com/Special/LEprimer.html   - basics info plus a few details.

• https://phys.org/news/2021-11-longest-lunar-eclipse-centuries-week.html  - basic info.

• https://www.farmersalmanac.com/november-19-lunar-eclipse-timetable  - basic info.

• https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/@7316471  - more details plus animations.

• https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2021Nov19P.pdf  - a lot of details plus maps.

Please contact me if you have any questions about what's happening in our November skies or the upcoming lunar eclipse. Do go outside to view the amazing heavens with your family, friends and campus colleagues and enjoy our clear November skies while there is still a bit of warmth in the air. Winter is coming!

education@starstostem.org

September ushers in a noticeable change from hot and sticky weather to warm fall days and chilly nights, perfect for stargazing and for harvesting. This month is the time for local harvest festivals, such as the Big E, as it is the traditional end of the growing season for us in the North. It should be no surprise that the official end of astronomical summer and the start of fall in the Northern hemisphere occurs today,  September 22nd! Happy Fall!

This celestial start of fall is also known as the autumnal equinox for Northern residents, but it is the spring equinox for residents of the Southern hemisphere. What makes both the spring and fall equinoxes astronomically special is that this is the date and time when the Sun crosses the celestial equator, the projection of the Earth's equator onto the sky. These events have been recognized since antiquity as times of seasonal change - dates when we experience roughly equal amounts of sunlight and darkness.

The equinoxes have been celebrated for millennia by cultural festivals that denote these agriculturally important times of year. A few of the traditions of the past have survived and we see them reflected in the positioning of standing stones or slotted openings in temple walls that act as astronomical calendars. One of my favorites is the descent of the plumed serpent from the summit of the pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen-Itza, located in the Yucatan. This temple is a seasonal calendar and at the moment of either equinox, the building's architecture was precisely designed to cast shadows on the North stone staircase, creating patterns of light and dark that look like a scaled serpent descending the side of this enormous structure. When fully "lit", the feathered god with its fanged head stands revealed, then disappears until the next equinox.

The full moon closest to the September equinox is called the Harvest Moon;  and it occurred this past Monday evening, just two days before the autumnal equinox. It was a beautifully clear night so I hope you got a chance to go outside and enjoy its splendor.

There are many autumn Harvest Moon  festivals to celebrate the end of the growing season and waning of the amount of daylight in the Northern hemisphere. One you may not be familiar with is the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival. This East and South-East Asian festival is held each year on the date of the Harvest Moon. It is a thanksgiving festival, a time to gather with family and celebrate an abundant harvest. One of the Moon Festivals most popular customs is the serving of Moon cakes. These round cakes, filled with sweets and nuts, represent the Moon. One of the things the full Moon symbolizes in these cultures is family reunion. So the Harvest Moon and the deity it represents brings people together to share the rewards of a successful harvest and the end of the summer season.

The new Moon in June will provide us with another treat, even if a hard-to-observe one. This Thursday, June 10th, the new Moon will appear in the same direction in the sky as the Sun, a Sun-Moon-Earth alignment that will produce a solar eclipse! Said another way, on June 10, the Moon sweeps in between the Sun and Earth as shown in the graphic below - syzygy. This line-up causes the Moon's shadow to sweep across a narrow band of the Earth's surface and for those in the band, also known as the path of totality, they are treated to a total or annular solar eclipse.

In Connecticut, we will only see a partial eclipse since we are not in the path of totality. And worse still, this eclipse will start before the Sun even rises here in Connecticut. So at sunrise this Thursday, the Sun will rise partially eclipsed - sunrise is occurring at  5:15 A.M. EDT in Groton on this date. We may be able to catch a tiny bit  of this partial solar eclipse as the maximum amount of light blocked will be happening between 5:32 and 5:33 A.M. The eclipsed Sun will be a mere 2 degrees about your NNE horizon when maximum eclipse occurs, not easy to spot. After that, as the Sun rises, the Moon's shadow will continue to move and block less and less of the Sun's disk until the whole show ends at 6:31 A.M. At that point the Sun will be a bit more than 12 degrees above your NNE horizon.

For us here in Connecticut, perhaps we will enjoy this event more by watching it streamed over the net by sites that will see the whole eclipse. Not that there are many major cities along the path of totality of this solar eclipse as it is an eclipse for those few inhabitants of the far north-eastern regions of Canada, parts of Greenland and Russia. Nonetheless, there is a livestream of the event planned by web site timeanddate.com (https://www.timeanddate.com/live/eclipse-solar-2021-june-10?ftag=MSF0951a18). 

And if you do try and see the dawn eclipse yourself,  please remember to be sure that you use proper eye protection when doing so. Check out the following links for how to watch the Sun and eclipses safely.

How to watch a solar eclipse safely: https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/celestial-objects-to-watch/eclipses/how-to-watch-a-partial-solar-eclipse-safely/

or

https://skyandtelescope.org/2017-total-solar-eclipse/low-tech-eclipse-viewing/

All the best,
Doc Brown

June is the month in which we transition from spring to summer. The astronomical event that marks this is called the June Solstice; on this day the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving from South to North. In the northern hemisphere, this date is also known as the summer solstice and is the longest day of our year. For the southern hemisphere, June 21 marks the start of their winter season and is their shortest day of the year - this date is the winter solstice from them.

The new Moon this month occurs on June 10th. The night skies around this date will not be troubled by moonlight. Consequently, it is a good time to get out and look for planets.  If you haven't been out Mars watching yet, then you will want to do at the beginning of this month as Mars is low, about 24 degrees off your western horizon at twilight, around 9 P.M. Eastern. Each passing day it moves closer and closer on the sky towards the Sun and by month's end it will have disappeared from our view by sunset. In return though, we get both Jupiter and Saturn. At the start of June, Saturn is rising in the ESE by 12:30A.M. Eastern and Jupiter rises about an hour later, also in the ESE. By month's end, Saturn rises at 10:30P.M. and Jupiter at 11:20P.M. becoming much more accessible for those who don't relish getting up in the wee hours of the morning to view these two spectacular gas giants.

There will be a full Moon on June 23rd. This full moon is known by many as the Full Strawberry Moon. The Moon in June reaches perigee, it closest approach to Earth in it orbit on the 24th. If the full Moon and perigee occurred on the same night, we would call such a full Moon a full Super Moon. We don't quite get there this month. Nonetheless, the almost full Moon on the 23rd will be bigger and brighter that average and the next evening the true full Moon will also appear brighter and bigger than normal, just not as quite as big and bright as possible. Still both nights will be good ones to get out and enjoy warm weather and a beautiful Moon that will grace our skies from dusk to dawn.

Your donations to STARS to STEM will support more astronomy news and public events in Niantic and our surrounding communities. Please contact us for further information (admin@starstostem.org). Thank you!

The month of May will bring us warmer weather and more pleasant evenings for stargazing. During May, Mars still graces our WSW evening skies, but now in the constellation of Gemini. Look for it between 7:30 and 11:30 P.M. EDT in the West. Throughout the month you will see Venus appear at dusk as it is now becoming an "evening star". The first week of May, around 7:30 P.M., low on your WNW horizon try and view Venus, Mercury and the Pleiades (in Taurus) all clustered together. These celestial treasures will all be located less than 7 degrees apart with Mars only an additional 40 degrees higher above the group in your evening sky. Watch Mercury over the first three weeks of May as, night-to- night,  it moves away from the setting Sun, is up later after dusk, and reaches it greatest angular separation of 18 degrees from the Sun on May 17th. This is the optimal time this month to view our faint celestial messenger as it is still close to bright Venus making it much easier to locate.

Saturn and Jupiter are rising earlier every morning throughout the month of May. Look to the ESE close to the horizon between 2 and 3 A.M. EDT early in the month to find Saturn rising first followed about 45 minutes later by Jupiter. By the end of month, Saturn will be rising by 12:30 A.M. and Jupiter by 1:15 A.M. As we move into June, these bright gas-giant planets will become prominent, bright features in your before-midnight skies.

Additionally, we will get to enjoy another Super-full Moon this month on May 26th. The perigee, aka, Super-full Moon happens when the Moon is both full and closest to Earth. Given that the distance between us is less than average, the Moon will appear larger in the sky by about 8% and brighter than average as well.

Also on May 26th, Earth experiences a total lunar eclipse. Unfortunately, for those of us located on the SE coast of the US, we will only get to witness the penumbral phase of this eclipse which starts at 4:48 A.M. EDT, just before sunrise. The penumbra is the lighter outer portion of a shadow. When the Earth's penumbral shadow starts across the face of the Moon, the change in amount of sunlight reflected to us on Earth will not be noticeable. The partial umbral eclipse phase happens when the Earth's dark inner shadow, the umbral shadow, moves across the Moon. That is when you see the big changes and the Moon starts to look as though large, dark bites have been taken from its surface. For us, the umbral partial eclipse starts at 5:23A.M. EDT just as the Moon sets and the Sun rises. We won't be able to see any of the umbral partial or total eclipse phases here, but the event will be live-streamed from a number of locations such as the Hawaiian Islands or the US West Coast where the full lunar eclipse will be visible. One web site streaming the eclipse is https://www.timeanddate.com/live/eclipse-lunar-2021-may-26. As we get closer to this date, many more live-streaming events will be announced. Stay tuned.

Your donations to STARS to STEM will support more astronomy news and public events in Niantic and our surrounding communities. Please contact us for further information (admin@starstostem.org). Thank you!

The month of April will provide us with several celestial delights to view as temperatures warm and we enjoy the arrival of spring in earnest. This month we will be treated to a full supermoon on the evening of April 27. A supermoon is the popular name given to the full moon that occurs when the distance between the Moon and Earth is smallest. This smallest distance between the Earth and the Moon is known as perigee and so astronomers call this a perigee full Moon. Compared to your average full moon, this super full moon will appear about 7% larger and some 16% brighter than usual. The April full moon, as you may have heard, is often referred to as the full Pink or Wild Phlox moon; it was so named as this is the time of year when the first of these early blooming flowers are making their appearance.

Trying to view the stars, meteor showers or most anything in heavens at times of, or close to, the full moon is difficult as the Moon's light get scattered around the sky and washes out most fainter objects. On the other hand, a great time for star and constellation viewing is on, or near, the night of the new Moon. The new Moon rises with the Sun and is up all day in the sky with the Sun. Consequently by dusk, the Sun and Moon are setting and that leaves the whole night moonless and much darker. This is the best time of the month to observe faint celestial objects such as meteors, or galaxies and star clusters. This month the new Moon occurs on April 12, so around that time, get out your binoculars and scan the heavens looking for some of these faint, fuzzy objects.

Meteor Showers
For some, the highlight of our April skies will be the Lyrid Meteor Shower. The Lyrids get their name from the constellation where the light trails left by these meteors appear to originate - the constellation of Lyra.  The name of the progenitor comet that is the source of these bits of rock and dust that burn up in our atmosphere and create this meteor shower is Comet Thatcher (aka C/1861 G1). On average, the Lyrids don't produce numerous shooting stars, just around 20 meteors per hour at the peak. The peak this year will occur in the wee morning hours of April 22rd.  If you can't observe on the date of the peak, you can still catch a view of some Lyrids a couple of days before the peak date until the show ends about two or three days after the peak.   

Unfortunately this year, it will be hard to observe many of the fainter meteor trials left by the shed bits of Comet Thatcher as this shower occurs close in time to the approaching full Moon. The waxing gibbous Moon that will dominate our skies on the 22nd will wash out all but the brightest of the Lyrids this year. Your best shot at catching the April Lyrids is to observe after midnight to 4 A.M. on the 22rd from a dark sky location. Look all around the sky for the Lyrid star trails, and with luck, you will catch a few of the bright ones streaking across the sky.

Planets
For those of you who want to scan the sky for planets, April heralds a growing number of planets that can be seen in the early evening and two spectacular Jovian planets in the early morning. Toward the beginning of the month, Mars is up and still gracing the constellation of Taurus. You can catch it if you look to the WSW after sunset but before 10 p.m. when it gets very low in the sky. The young crescent Moon will appear just below Mars on April 16th - a lovely scene - then the Moon moves on to occult (i.e., pass in front of) Mars on April 17th at 4 P.M. By 8P.M. the crescent Moon will have moved some 5 degrees away from the Moon. And again the pair will form a lovely grouping in your evening sky. 

By April's end, you will be able, with diligence, observe Venus as an evening planet. When either Venus or Mercury appear in our skies just after twilight and into the early evening they get referred to as “evening stars”. Earth's twin is slowly appearing to move away from the Sun on the sky and with each passing day will become easier to spot after sunset. At this time, Mercury too appears as an evening star and its angular distance from the Sun is even greater than that of Venus. Sadly, Mercury is faint as it is a very small planetary body, so it will be harder to see. To find it, scan your WNW horizon between 7:30 and 8:15p.m. On the 29th or the 30th. If you miss Mercury in April, May will provide you with an even better view of this elusive, inner planet. Venus too will become much easier to spot in May. Flowers and planets - a fitting start to spring.

For those who are early evening sky watchers, unfortunately, there are not many planets visible in our before-midnight March skies.  The exception is Mars.  During this month, Mars appears as rusty-reddish-wihte orb that can be seen in the constellation of Taurus, the Bull.  Mars will be visible throughout the month after sunset, and before midnight when it sets in the South-West.  March 19th, after sunset, Mars forms a triptych with the bright, red-giant star, Aldebaran, and the waxing crescent Moon.  On this date, Mars will be separated from the Moon by less than 3∞ and from Aldebaran by less than 7∞.  It is not quite the 2020 Great Conjunction, but it will still produce a lovely celestial grouping.  

The month of March is best known for the spring equinox which occurs on March 20th this year.  This date marks the start of astronomical spring for those of us in the Northern hemisphere and we all begin to feel the increasing warmth of the Sun and the lengthening of daylight, as the seasons change.  The full March Moon this year falls on March 28th, a week or so after the equinox.  This full Moon is known by many names such as the Worm Moon, the Crow Moon (both Native American), and the Lenten Moon (Christian).

For those who rise before dawn, on March 6th, Mercury reaches Greatest Western Elongation.  This is when Mercury achieves its largest angular distance west of the Sun and when it is easiest to actually see this orb in our pre-dawn sky, leading the Sun by a whopping 27∞.  Look for this planet low on your ESE horizon between 5:30 and 6:00a.m.  Binoculars will help!

Your donations to STARS to STEM will support more local astronomy public engagement in Niantic and our surrounding communities. Donations can be made by mail to STARS to STEM, Inc.  P.O. Box 616, Niantic, CT. 06357 or on-line at http://www.starstostem.org.  Thank you !

*Dr. Leslie Brown is Associate Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Connecticut College.  She is Education Director of STARS to STEM, Inc.