Jared May: What's Up April 27-May 4

What’s Up This Fourth Week of April

We have made it to the heart of spring and this week will be split between the tail-end of April and the start of May. The old saying goes “April showers bring May flowers”, but surprisingly, the last few days of April this week may give some clear days and nights instead of showers!

While the daytime temperatures will be in the 50s, the nighttime temperatures will drop down into the mid-30s – pretty cold for a spring night, so dress warmly. Sunset this week is around 8:25 PM. Be ready with your telescopes, binoculars, and lawn chairs for stargazing no later than 9:25 PM.

During the clear and partially clear nights ahead be on the lookout for a five-way celestial object meetup, a Venus-Jupiter conjunction, Mercury in the evening, the rising core of the Milky Way, and a triplet of galaxies.

If you are awake in the mornings between 5:30 AM and 6:30 AM, take a peek near the eastern horizon. Tuesday and Wednesday (4/26 and 4/27) you will see five solar-system objects neighboring each other. From east to west there is the waning crescent moon, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn. Past Wednesday the moon will be too close to the sun to see, but you can still catch the other four objects. A pair of binoculars is a great choice for viewing these celestial bodies. You may even be able to catch some earthshine appearing on the darkened side of the moon.

The planets as seen Wednesday, April 27, just before sunrise.

Saturday, April 30, in the same early-morning hours, try spotting Jupiter and Venus once again. You will see they are hardly distinguishable by eye. Despite being physically separated by over 430 million miles, these planets will appear to be separated by a mere 0.5° in the sky, so you may be able to fit them both in a single field of view with binoculars. This will make for a potentially interesting planetary imaging opportunity.

Jupiter and Venus are going to get really close on Saturday Morning.

Any time this week between 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM, try looking low in the western skies. As the sunset colors fade and the sky darkens, Mercury’s shine will stand out. This inner-most planet is at the “peak” of its orbit relative to earth. By that I mean it is near its distant-most point from the sun as viewed from earth, so we get about one hour of observation before Mercury sets. If you wait until closer to 9:30 to spot Mercury, a pair of binoculars and a careful set of eyes will also find the Pleiades cluster nearby.

This is your last chance to spot the Pleiades before they set into the evening twilight. This week, they point out the position of the elusive Merucry.

The summer is the best time to observe the bright and dense core-region of the Milky Way. And since warm weather has been teasing most of the Midwest recently, why not try and experience an “early summer” by observing the Milky Way core. If you are still stargazing at midnight, look in the southern and eastern skies to spot the long and bright arms and core of the Milky Way stretching across the entire horizon. Any cosmic object low to the horizon is difficult to spot because its light has to pass through much more air (or “airmass”, as astronomers call it) as compared to a cosmic object that is nearly overhead, so be aware of that when scoping out the rising stars and dust lanes of our own galaxy.  

The Milky-Way rises over the eastern horizon at around 1:00 AM. It should be high enough to view easily by about about 3:00 AM.

In the spirit of galaxy season, this week’s galactic focus is the Leo Triplet which consists of three galaxies: M65, M66, and NGC 3628. This small group of interacting galaxies sits 35 million light-years away, shines at an average magnitude of 9.3, and occupies a somewhat small angular footprint in the sky. A telescope is best suited for observing these distant spiral galaxies. Try attaching a camera to your telescope and imaging this “triplet” to resolve the dusty spiral structure of each galaxy – can you spot which of the three is completely edge-on?

M65, M66 and NGC 3628, the Leo Triplet are along the “back leg” Leo, which is high in the sky after sundown. They can be seen in a good pair of binoculars under dark skies.

This week the nighttime temperatures will be quite low, but don’t let that discourage you from sitting under the stars and exploring the springtime night skies. Bring a lawn chair or a towel to lay down on and gaze upwards to see things just a few hundred miles away (a satellite) to things millions of light-years away (galaxies). Under the upcoming clear skies try looking for the early-morning planetary belt, a planetary conjunction, Mercury high in the sky, the rising arms of the Milky Way, and the Leo Triplet.

Clear Skies!