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Tuesday, April 27, 2021

 

Thursday April 29 to Thursday May 6

The Last Quarter Moon is Tuesday, May 4. Saturn and Jupiter are readily visible in the morning sky. On the 3rd the waning Moon forms a line with Saturn and Jupiter. On the 4th the last quarter Moon is close to Saturn. On the 5th the Moon is between Saturn and Mars and on the 6th the cresnt  Moon forms a line with Saturn and Jupiter again. Dimming Mars is readily visible in the early evening skies. From the 29th to the 6th Mars is in binocular range of the open cluster M35. On the 6th the eta Aquariid meteor shower begins its peak.

The Last Quarter Moon is Tuesday, May 4.

Morning sky on Wednesday
May 5 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 and the waning Moon is close to Jupiter.
 
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 18:59 ACST  (90 minutes after sunset), on Saturday, May 1 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, May 1  facing north-west as seen from Adelaide.  

Mars forms a triangle with the brightish stars mu (Tejat) and eta geminorum, and is within binocular distance of M35. The inset shows the approximate binocular view at this time. 


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

The eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks on the morning of 6 May, sadly after sunrise in Australia, although good rates will be seen on the mornings of the 7th, 8th and 9th from 3:00 AM to 5:00 AM

The eta Aquarids are debris from Halleys comet. the best time to see the eta Aquariid meteor shower between around 4 and 5 am, when Aquarius is fairly high above the horizon and the crescent Moon is low. You may see between a meteor every 3-4  minutes at this time. The radiant of the shower is about five hand-spans up from the eastern horizon, and three hand-spans to the left of due east at 4 am (see diagram above). 
 
 
Mercury is  lost in the twilight but is visible in the evening twilight  next week.

Venus is lost in the twilight but is also visible in the evening twilight late next week.

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 29th to the 6th 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. On the 1st Mars forms a triangle with the brightish stars mu and eta geminorum, A little juggling gets all 4 objects in one binocular field.
   
Jupiter is climbing higher in the morning sky forming a line with Saturn. On the 3rd the waning Moon forms a line with Saturn and Jupiter.
 
 Saturn is climbing higher in the morning sky and is easily seen above Jupiter . On the 3rd the waning Moon forms a line with Saturn and Jupiter. On the 4th the last quarter Moon is close to Saturn.
 
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/ 



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