Astroblog: Thursday April 18 to Thursday April 25

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Thursday April 18 to Thursday April 25

The First Quarter Moon is Tuesday, April 16. Jupiter is very low in the north-western twilight sky. Comet 12P Pons-Brooks may be visible above Jupiter at the beginning of the week and will progressively climb higher over the week. In the morning Mars and Saturn are high.Venus is barely visible low in the morning twilight below the pair. Mercury joins Venus late in the week and is closest on the 20th.

The First Quarter Moon is Tuesday, April 16. The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest from the Earth, on the 20th.

Evening sky on Sunday, April 21 as seen from Adelaide at 18:39 ACST (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Jupiter is almost lost above the north-western horizon. Comet 12P is close to the pair of Xi and omicron Tau (the inset is the approximate binocular view of the trio).

While the comet is a reasonable bright magnitude 4, it is still not far from the horizon and will be difficult to see it through the horizon murk. You will definitely need binoculars. Over the week the comet will climb higher above the horizon murk and should be easily located in binoculars by sweeping up from Jupiter. Spotters charts are here.

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

Morning sky on Saturday, April 20 as seen from Adelaide at 06:03 ACST, (45 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Mars and Saturn are pulling apart as Saturn climbs higher. Venus is now very low on the horizon and difficult to see. Mercury joins the lineup and is close to Venus on the 20th. You will need binoculars to see mercury.

The inset is the binocular view of Venus and Mercury at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (45 minutes before sunrise).

Whole sky on Saturday, Saturday, April 20 as seen from Adelaide at 19:10 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen).

Orion is now in the north-west. Bright Sirius is dominant in the north-western sky. Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are a wealth of binocular objects to discover. As the Moon waxes , the fainter clusters will begin to dim.

Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

Mercury emerges into the twilight and is close to Venus on the 20th.

Venus is very low in the morning twilight, it is sinking towards the horizon and will be lost in the twilight by the end of the Month. Mars and Saturn draw away from Venus. Mercury is close to Venus on the 20th.

Mars is rising in the morning twilight and moving away from Venus.

Jupiter is visible very low in the early evening twilight sky.

Saturn climbs higher in the morning twilight. Saturn draws away from Mars rising higher in the morning sly.

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