Babe Among the Stars
Created | Updated Apr 1, 2009
Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the earth - Ptolemy
April 2009
Last month I wrote an article for the EG on urban seagulls, so imagine my surprise to load the Astronomy Picture of the Day website on 27 March and discover that day's picture was The Seagull Nebula which I didn't even know existed, and it was its first appearance on APOD.
This month there's a prominent meteor shower and everyone will be able to see the new crescent Moon occult the Pleiades, clear skies permitting.
On 24 April it is the 19th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope being launched into orbit. For the Hubble's swansong, the team launched a competition for the public to choose Hubble's last great snapshot. I mentioned it in a previous Babe Among The Stars and gave details of how to enter, as there were prizes to be won. I now have the result: the winner was interacting galaxies ARP 274, (ARP after Halton Arp, who devised the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies) with 67,021 votes. As the runner-up choice, spiral galaxy NGC 5172 polled only 26,987 votes, you can see that the 'cosmic trainwreck' was a runaway winner. Yes, I voted for ARP 274, and I will be keeping an eye out for the Hubble picture's release, which is scheduled for after 2 April (beyond the deadline for this BATS edition). I will bring it to your attention as soon as I can!
April Diary Dates
- 02-05: 100 Hours of Astronomy, a worldwide event focused on renewing interest in the night sky - part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009
- 07: Saturn 6° north of Moon
- 09: Full Moon: This is called the Pink Moon in honour of Spring although some coastal regions refer to it as the Fish Moon
- 13: Antares (alpha Scorpii) 0.4° south of Moon
- 15: Mars 0.5° south of Uranus
- 16-26: the Lyrids meteor shower with the maximum usually on the evening of 21 April
- 18: Venus 6° north of Moon
- 19: Jupiter 2° south of Moon
- 20: Neptune 2° south of Moon
- 22: Venus 1° south of Moon (there will be an occultation in the US and most of Canada)
- 22: Uranus 5° and Mars 6° south of Moon
- 25: New Moon
- 26: Mercury 2° south of Moon
- 26: Moon occults The Pleiades — the Moon will be just one day old, a mere sliver, and will follow the setting Sun, so begin your observations as soon as it begins to get dark. NEVER attempt to search for the new moon in the direction of the Sun using optical aides, it is extremely dangerous as you could fry your retina and end up blind. Wait until the Sun has set. You could see something like this Astronomy Picture Of the Day special from April 2007: Young Moon and Sister Stars
- 28: Moon at perigee (only 366,039km distance)
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Chat about your celestial observances at the H2G2 Astronomy Society. Comment on anything in this edition of Babe Among the Stars by starting a new conversation below.
