Astroblog: Thursday March 30 to Thursday April 6

Monday, March 27, 2023

Thursday March 30 to Thursday April 6

The Full Moon is Thursday, April 6. Venus is prominent in the twilight and is heading towards the iconic Pleiades cluster. Venus is withing binocular distance of Uranus on the 31st. Saturn is low in the morning twilight. Bright Mars, is leaving the Hyades cluster behind. Daylight savings ends Sunday April 2.

The Full Moon is Thursday, April 6. The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest from the Earth, on the 4th. Daylight savings ends Sunday April 2.

Morning sky on Saturday, April 1 as seen from Adelaide at 06:03 ACDST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Saturn is low above the horizon.

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

Evening sky on Friday, March 31 as seen from Adelaide at 20:07 ACDST, (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Venus is low above the horizon close to Uranus. 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 Uranus.

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

Evening sky on Saturday, April 1 as seen from Adelaide at 20:35 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is obvious between Aldebaran and Betelgeuse. Venus is just setting.

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

Whole sky on Saturday, April 1 as seen from Adelaide at 20:35 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is visible above the north western horizon and Venus is just setting.

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. However the waxing Moon will begin to wash them out.

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

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

Venus climbs higher in the twilight and is close to Uranus on the 31st.

Mars is obvious between Aldebaran and Betelgeuse.

Jupiter is now lost in the twilight.

Saturn climbs higher in the morning skies.

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