Eye on the Sky
Paul Curtin
There is a total/annular solar eclipse on
8 April visible in the Southeast US, Mexico, Central America
and parts of South America.
The Moon occults Antares on 23 April. This
will be a great event to time, photograph or simply enjoy
with binoculars or the naked eye.
The Americas, East Asia, Australia and New
Zealand can view a penumbral lunar eclipse on the evening
of 24 April. See Gupta for the times and locations of these
three events.
April in the north begins with the Big Dipper,
known as Charles Wain in the British Isles. Zeta, the famed
Mizar, is an easy double in binoculars. See if you can split
it with the naked eye. The Dipper, or Wain, is not the whole
of Ursa Major though, and learning the less obvious areas
of the Great Bear is well worth the effort. Look for the numerous
galaxies stretching from the bowl of the dipper west and north
to Camelopardalis.
Another group of galaxies can be found north
of the handle near the border with Draco. Kepple has great
finder charts for these. Try to locate the darkest observing
spot possible when searching for faint fuzzies.
Yet another group of galaxies can be found
by sweeping southeast of the dipper into Canes Venatici. Following
this line you will sweep past Coma Berenices, a lovely open
cluster so close to us that it is deemed a constellation.
Like the Hyades, this should be viewed with wide-field binoculars
for best results. Coma is host to a large number of galaxies.
To the west we see a striking sickle shape
preceding a right triangle. Together these form Leo Major.
Its Alpha is the star Regulus, which has a companion visible
in small telescopes. The star at the eastern end of Leo (Denebola)
is also a nice color-contrast double. Bring them slightly
out of focus to better distinguish the blue and orange hues.
South of Regulus is the relatively barren
region covered by Sextans and below that the rambling east-west
river of stars comprising Hydra. Hydra begins south of Cancer
and stretches east into the early summer sky just shy of Libra.
Hydra hosts a large number of faint galaxies for the intrepid
star hopper to explore.
Farther south Antlia likewise boasts a number
of galaxies while neighboring Vela displays the clusters and
gas nebulae of the Southern Milky Way. This is a very rewarding
area for those interested in star fields and merits slow sweeping
with wide field equipment.
Mercury is well placed for southern observers.
At the end of the month it will be nearly 10 degrees high
at dawn.
Venus is not visible this month.
Mars moves into Capricornus in the morning
sky.
Jupiter, is at opposition on April 16. It
is the brightest object in the night sky (except the moon
of course) and can be observed throughout the night.
Saturn can be observed in the evening hours. The rings are
still very well placed for observation.
Burnham, Robert Jr., Burnham's Celestial Handbook, New York:
Dover, 1978.
Gupta, R. (ed.), Observers Handbook 2005, Toronto: University
of Toronto Press, 2004.
Kepple, G. R., Sanner, G. W., The Night Sky Observers Guide,
Richmond, Virginia: Willman-Bell, 1999.
Tirion, W., Rappaport, B., Remaklus, W., Uranometria Deep
Sky Atlas, Richmond, Virginia: Willman-Bell, 2000.
Webb, T. W., Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, New
York: Dover, 1962. 
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