Astroblog: Thursday April 13 to Thursday April 20

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Thursday April 13 to Thursday April 20

The New Moon is Thursday, April 20. Solar Eclipse April 20, partial in most of Australia. Venus is prominent in the twilight and close to the iconic Pleiades cluster on the 13th. Saturn is climbing in the morning twilight and bracketed by the crescent Moon on the 16th and 17th. Bright Mars is closest to the bright star Metsuba on the 14th. A series of bright ISS passes starts this week.

The New Moon is Thursday, April 20. Solar Eclipse, partial in most of Australia. The Moon is at Perigee, when it is closest to the Earth, on the 16th.

Morning sky on Sunday, April 16 as seen from Adelaide at 05:09 ACST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Saturn is below Capricorn with the crescent Moon above.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise).

Evening sky on Thursday, April 13 as seen from Adelaide at 18:56 ACST, (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Venus is low above the horizon close to The Pleiades cluster. You will need an unobstructed horizon and binoculars to see the pair at their best. The inset is the approximate binocular view of Venus and the Pleiades.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset).

Evening sky on Friday, April 14 as seen from Adelaide at 19:18 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is at its closest to eta Geminorum (Metsuba). Venus is just above the horizon.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Partial Eclipse as seen from Darwin near maximum eclipse, 13:51 ACST. Simulated in Stellarium.

On 20th April the Sun will be eclipsed at the very edge of Australia, the path of totality will pass over the northwest cape in WA.

The rest of Australia sees a partial eclipse, with WA having the best view, Broome and Geraldton see >80% of the Sun covered: Darwin 80%, Perth 71%, Cairns 50%M Townsville 36% and Adelaide 21%. the partial eclipse begins around 10 am local time WA, 12 pm central states and 1 pm Eastern states.

Do NOT look directly at the Sun! Do not use so called filters. Over exposed film, smoked glass, CD's, chip packets etc. used as filters are NOT, repeat NOT safe. Only special solar-rated viewing spectacles from astronomical suppliers should be used or safe solar projection.

Links to timings for selected cities, charts and safe solar observing techniques can be found at my eclipse site.

Whole sky on Sunday, April 16 as seen from Adelaide at 19:09 ACST, 85 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is visible above the north western horizon and Venus is just setting in the west. Many parts of Australia will see a bright ISS pass around this time.

Orion the Hunter, is prominent along with Taurus the Bull and Sirius in the north-western sky.

Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are another wealth of binocular objects to discover.

Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (85 minutes after sunset) although the ISS pass time may vary a bit.

Mercury returns to the morning twilight, but will be almost impossible to see.

Venus climbs higher in the twilight and is close to to the Pleiades on the 14th.

Mars is closest to the bright star Metsuba on the 14th.

Jupiter is now lost in the twilight.

Saturn climbs higher in the morning skies and is bracketed by the Moon on the 16th and 17th.

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