Title: April Skywatch Highlights
Location: Hawaiian Islands
Date / Time: April 2008
Comments: Behold our beautiful spring skies! As the sky darkens, you'll find our signature winter constellations nearly overhead: Orion, Gemini, Taurus, Canis Major (toward the south) & Auriga (toward the north); with Cancer & Leo just to the east. Early evening, look for the unmistakable orange glow of MARS, still in Gemini, high up at nightfall. The Red Planet sits along side of Gemini brother Castor in early April, then appears to move toward the other twin, Pollux. At the end of the month Mars is nearly in line with Castor & Pollux, & appears like a third "brother" or triplet in the constellation. SATURN shines brightly, 2.5 times brighter than Regulus, the "heart" of Leo the Lion, which sits 2 deg. west of Saturn. Watch for the Moon to visit Saturn & Regulus on April 14th, a stunning trio! Saturn's ring system is beginning to tilt "edge-on" to our view from Earth. In late 2008, & through much of 2009, the rings will disappear from our view. This month, however, the rings are magnificent! You'll need at least a 30x telescope to view them. (Join us at a KEASA Starwatch & SEE for yourself). Early mornings, look for brilliant JUPITER, rising in the southeast by 2 AM early in the month, and by midnight at month's end. Jupiter appears among the stars of Eastern Sagittarius, near the handle of the "teapot" asterism, and dominates the early morning sky as the brightest object except for the Moon. The gibbous Moon dangles just below the giant planet the morning of April 27th. MERCURY will be traveling behind the Sun this month, and then reappear early evenings in late April, shining low in the west (at magnitude -1.4) about 30 minutes after sunset. On April 30th, as the sky begins to darken, look for Mercury, 10 deg. above the WNW horizon, just below the Pleiades star cluster. Like Mercury, VENUS is moving back around the Sun & will be challenging to view until it reappears in the evening sky in late summer. Shortly after sunset, April 8th, the crescent Moon crosses the glistening Pleiades star cluster, a striking event to observe. Watch for the Southern Cross to rise around 10:00 PM in early April, and by 8:30 PM, later in the month, low on the southern horizon. Hawaii is one of the few places where we can see all the way from the North Star, Polaris (Hokupa'a), to the Southern Cross, a Polynesian navigational "star line" called Ka Iwikuamo'o, "The Backbone." For further details and an April sky map, visit Bishop Museum Planetarium www.bishopmuseum.org/planetarium (bishopmuseum.org).

Maintained by Roz Reiner - Kauai, Hawaii

 

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