What’s In April’s Skies

By Matt Woods

Planets:

Mercury reappears halfway through April and will be very low in the Western sky in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull), it’s the only planet in the early evening. It will reach its greatest elongation in the West on Friday the 29th of April in the evening, and it’ll begin to make its way back towards the Sun before disappearing again in the Sun’s glare at the end of the month. Venus can be found at the start of April in a conjunction with Mars and Saturn.

You’ll be able to find Venus in the constellation of Aquarius (The Water-Bearer) late at night but as we move through April, Venus will move away from Mars and it’ll move into the constellation of Pisces (The Fish) with Jupiter, ending the month in a conjunction with Jupiter. Mars can be found just above Saturn in conjunction, and both planets with Venus at the start of April. It’ll start the month, you’ll find Mars in the constellation of Capricornus (The Sea-Goat) but by the end of April, you’ll find it in the constellation of Aquarius in the middle between Saturn and Venus/ Jupiter.

Jupiter can be seen in the constellation of Pisces throughout April. It spends April mostly on its own until Venus joins it at the end of April. Saturn can be found in the constellation of Capricornus throughout April. It’ll be between Mars and Venus at the start of April, but by the end of the month, it’ll be on its own. Neptune will be in the early morning sky in the constellation of Pisces just below Jupiter at the start of April. By the end of April, Neptune will be just above Venus and Jupiter.

Conjunctions involve object(s) in the Solar System and/or more distant objects, such as a star. It’s an apparent phenomenon in which multiple objects which aren’t close together appear close in the sky and it’s caused by the observer’s perspective. An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer.

Venus, Mars and Saturn on the 01/04/22 at 5 am (AWST) Mars and Saturn on the 05/04/22 at 5 am (AWST)

The Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn on the 24/04/22 at 5 am (AWST) The Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn on the 28/04/22 at 5 am (AWST)

Astronomical Events:

The Lyrids Meteor Shower:

In the early morning of the night of the 22nd/23rd of April, while most of us were asleep the Lyrids Meteor Shower will hit the Earth’s atmosphere at its peak. have been observed for at least 2,600 years which makes them the longest observed meteor shower.

The oldest descriptions come from China where sources described on the night the 16th of March 687 BC that “stars fell like rain”. The records show that this shower has been more active in the past but has since turned into a minor shower with the occasional surprise which keeps the Lyrids always a bit interesting.

The Lyrids on the 22/04/22 at 4 am (AWST)

The cause of the Lyrids is the long-period comet with a very boring name of Comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher). The comet has a rough orbit of about 415 years and was discovered by A. E. Thatcher on the 5th of April 1861 as it was making its last pass around The Sun.

The Lyrids are active between the 16th and 25th of April and will appear to come from the constellation of Lyra. Lyra will appear in the sky over the Perth hills around midnight so you should go out around 03:00 am when the has setting and the Lyra constellation is at its zenith (highest point in the sky) and look towards the bright star (Vega) low in the North.

Give your eyes 15 minutes to fully adjust to the lighting conditions and while it’s always best to go to a dark sky area outside of Perth, you can find a nice park or a large open space in Perth’s outskirts to get an okay view.

This year, the Last Quarter Moon will be in the sky during the meteor shower, so we’ll have to deal with some light pollution from it. In dark sky areas, you should see up to 18 meteors per hour, while in the cities and towns we may only see a few.

Partial Solar Eclipse:

On Saturday the 30th of April, the Moon will partially pass between the Earth and Sun and cause a Partial Solar Eclipse. During a partial solar eclipse, the Moon, the Sun and Earth don’t align in a perfectly straight line, and the Moon casts only the outer part of its shadow, the penumbra, on Earth.

From our perspective, this looks like the Moon has taken a bite out of the Sun. Sometimes, the Moon covers only a tiny part of the Sun’s disk. Other times a partial eclipse looks almost like a total eclipse. The size of the eclipsed area is referred to as eclipse magnitude.

This is the first of two Partial Solar Eclipses for 2022 and unfortunately, we won’t see either. This eclipse will only be visible from southern South America, parts of Antarctica, and over the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Leo’s Triplet:

The Leo Triplet (M66 Group), located in the constellation Leo is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away. This galaxy group consists of three spiral galaxies M65, M66, and NGC 3628. To see the best out of this galaxy cluster, it’s best to get out to the country with a telescope. To plan an astronomy trip to the country it’s best to check out Astrotourism WA Map.

Messier 65 (NGC 3623) is an intermediate spiral galaxy that is slightly smaller than our galaxy at 90,000 light-years in diameter and is 35 million light-years away from us. It’s low in dust and gas, and there is little star formation in the galaxy, although there has been recent star formation in the spiral arms of the galaxy. The ratio of old stars to new stars is correspondingly quite high as well.

Messier 66 (NGC 3627), is another intermediate spiral galaxy in the group. M65 and M66 make a popular pair for observers as they’re separated by only 20 degrees. M66 spiral shape has a weak bar feature in the centre and loosely wound arms. It lies closer to us than M65 at 31 million lightyears away and it appears to be slightly larger than M65 at 95,000 light-years in diameter. We are seeing it at an angle, and it has striking dust lanes and bright star clusters along sweeping spiral arms.

The Hamburger Galaxy (NGC 3628) also known as Sarah’s Galaxy is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 35 million light-years away and it has an approximately 300,000 light-years long tidal tail. Its most striking feature is the broad and obscuring band of dust located along the outer edge of its spiral arms, effectively transecting the galaxy to the view from Earth.

The Leo Triplet on the 15/04/22 at 9 pm (AWST)

Messier 66

Leo’s Triplet

Image Credit: REU program/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/