| Subject: Stargazing For April 2005 |
Author:
Betty
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Date Posted: 18:47:40 03/29/05 Tue
Three planets are visible during the month of April. Bright Jupiter appears low in the east as the sun sets. It may be the first point of light you see as the sky begins to darken. By midnight it will be high overhead. Saturn is somewhat fainter, but will still stand out near the constellation Gemini the Twins. Both planets are great binocular and telescopic targets. Red planet Mars still lurks in the pre-dawn hours, low in the southeast. It's not so impressive now, but will put on a great show later this year.
April is the best time to observe the Virgo galaxy cluster. This, at a distance of 54 million light years is the nearest large galaxy cluster. Some of the galaxies visible in Virgo include M64, also known as the Blackeye Galaxy due to its prominent area of dust, M61, M60, M59, M58, M84, M85, M86, M87, and M88. The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51 is found in Canes Venatici. This is an 8th magnitude face-on spiral. It may be possible to see some hints of spiral structure using the Dobsonian. M51 is interacting with a neighboring galaxy which is also visible as a second nucleus near to the larger one. The globular cluster M3 is found in Coma Berenices, this is one of the brightest in the northern hemisphere.
The April Lyrid meteor shower peaks on the night of April 21-22, at 1:00 am EDT. Normally this early morning time frame would be ideal for us, but unfortunately the waxing gibbous Moon (full on the 24th) will overshadow all but the brightest members.
April 24th marks the 15th anniversary of the launch of Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. HST has had its ups and downs over the years, but it has made many amazing discoveries and captured countless beautiful images along the way.
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