Astroblog: Thursday April 22 to Thursday April 29

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Thursday April 22 to Thursday April 29

The Full Moon is Tuesday, April 27, this is a perigee (super) Moon. Saturn and Jupiter are readily visible in the morning sky. Dimming Mars is readily visible in the early evening skies. On the 27th Mars is on the outskirts of the open cluster M35 (binocular only).

The Full Moon is Tuesday, April 27, this is a perigee (super) Moon. Perigee is on April 28, 11 hours after official Full Moon, but this still counts.

Morning sky on Saturday, April 24 showing the eastern sky as seen from Adelaide at 5:21am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). Saturn and Jupiter form a line in the morning sky.

The insets shows the telescopic views of Jupiter and Saturn at this time.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise), click to embiggen.

Whole sky at 19:06 ACST (90 minutes after sunset), on Saturday, April 24 as seen from

Adelaide.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset). click to embiggen.

Evening sky at 19:06 ACST (90 minutes after sunset), on Saturday, April 24 facing north-west as seen from Adelaide.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset), click to embiggen.

Looking north-east after Full Moon on Tuesday, 27 April at 23:00 ACST (strictly Full Moon is at 1:30 ACST and Perigee at 1:00 am ACST on the 28th). The Full Moon is a perigee Moon when the Full Moon is closest to the Earth. This is not as good as the May 26 perigee Moon/lunar eclipse but is still very good. Don't look just at moon rise as the horizon illusion will make the Moon look bigger than it is, wait until it is a decent way above the horizon. The size contrast will be best when comparing to the October 31/November 1 apogee Moon.

A full Moon at perigee has been called a "Super Moon", this is not an astronomical term (the astronomical term is perigee syzygy, but that doesn't trip off the tongue so nicely), but an astrological one first coined in 1979 (see here).

Still, it is a good excuse to get people out and looking at the Moon.

Mercury is lost in the twilight.

Venus is lost in the twilight.

Mars is readily visible in the evening sky above the north-western horizon in the early evening. Mars is beyond the stars that form the tips of the horns of Taurus the Bull heading towards Gemini. On the 27th Mars is is within binocular distance of the open cluster M35. You will need binoculars to see this as although M35 is technically unaided eye visible, the moonlight and low altitude makes the cluster too hard to see.

Jupiter is climbing higher in the morning sky forming a line with Saturn.

Saturn is climbing higher in the morning sky and is easily seen above Jupiter .

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

Labels: weekly sky

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 1:17 am

Comments:

Hi Ian,

Just wondering why you didn't mention the lyrids? Are they not worth looking at this year for some reason?

I have cloudy skies tonight. Wondering if I should bother staying up tomorrow?

Thanks!

# posted by

Dale : 4:11 am

The Lyrids are a waste of time from Australia, especially with the Moonlight interfering. Rates are around one meteor every 1-20 minutes around 3-4 am.

# posted by