Episode 209 – Objects to Observe in April 2022 Show Notes

A great conjunction of sorts happens from the End of March through the first week of April. Mars and Saturn are in a binocular / wide field telescopic field, on the 4th &5th Mars is closer than 0.5-degrees south of Saturn.

April 3rd – Uranus 0.6-degrees north of crescent moon

April 8th – Lunar X – Good night!

April 9th – First quarter Moon & Straight Wall

April 12 – Jupiter 0.1-degrees north of Neptune in morning Sky

• Asteroid 8 Flora at opposition at mag. 9.7
• Innermost of the large main-belt asteroids larger than 25km in diameter can reach brighter than 8th mag. In better oppositions
• Disc. by Hind in 1847 John Herschel proposed to name it after the Latin GOddess of flowers
• Parent Body of Flora family of asteroids
• Rocky/metal

April 16th – 18th – Jupiter Venus Mars and Saturn line up in the morning sky

• Full Moon

APril 17th – Uranus 2-degrees south of Mercury in evening sky

April 22nd & 23rd – Lyrid meteor shower – you can expect to see an average of 10 meteors per hour in dark, clear skies between midnight and dawn. Rarely, the Lyrids produce surges of up to 100 meteors per hour.

April 23rd – last quarter Moon

April 24th – Saturn 5-degrees North of the Moon in morning sky

APril 25th – Mars 4-degrees North of the Moon in morning sky

April 26th – Moon half-way between Venus and Mars  in morning sky

April 27th – Venus 0.01 degrees South of Uranus in Morning Sky

• Crescent Moon meets up with Venus & Jupiter

April 29th – Mercury at Greatest Elongation East visible in West after Sunset…and closer than 2-degrees to Pleiades but doubt you’d see them

April 30th – New Moon

• End of APril through early May another conjunction when Jupiter and Venus meet in the morning sky, getting closer than 0.25-degrees on the 30th….but visible on several days either side.
• Partial Solar eclipse for southern South America

Comets:

C/2019 L3 (ATLAS): An evening comet visible in small telescopes. This comet begins the month in Gemini at magnitude 9.7. Look for a 3.5′ coma. It should fade by about 0.5 magnitudes by month’s end.

19P/Borrelly: An evening comet visible in small telescopes. This comet begins the month in Aries at magnitude 9.8. Look for a 3′ coma. It should fade by about 1.3 magnitudes, moving into Perseus by month’s end.