Sky Calendar -- April 2009

[Orion11]

http://www.skymaps.com/articles/n0904.html

Sky Calendar -- April 2009
2 Moon at perigee (closest to Earth) at 2h UT (370,013 km; 32.3').

2 First Quarter Moon at 14:34 UT.

4 Moon near Beehive cluster (M44) at 8h UT (evening sky).

5 Moon near Regulus at 23h UT (evening sky).

7 Moon near Saturn at 2h UT (evening sky).

9 Full Moon at 14:55 UT. Called the Egg Moon because it is the full moon before Easter.
• Full Moon Names (Wikipedia)

9 Moon near Spica at 22h UT ( evening sky).

13 Moon very near Antares at 13h UT (morning sky). Occultation visible from Hawaii.
• Occultation of Antares (IOTA)

15 Mars 0.43° from Uranus at 9h UT (31° from Sun, morning sky). Mags +1.2 and +5.9.

16 Moon at apogee (farthest from Earth) at 9h UT (distance 404,232 km; angular size 29.6').

17 Last Quarter Moon at 13:37 UT.

19 Moon near Jupiter at 15h UT (morning sky).

National Dark Sky Week, April 20-26. Switch off unnecessary outdoor lights.

• National Dark Sky Week website (IOTA)
22 Lyrid meteor shower peaks at 11h UT. Active between April 16-25. Radiant is located between Hercules and Lyra. Expect between 10 to 20 bright, fast meteors per hour at its peak.

• The Lyrids (Gary Kronk)

• Meteor Shower Calendar 2009 (IMO)

22 Moon very near Venus at 13h UT (33° from Sun, morning sky). Occultation visible from North America (daytime) except for far South and East.

• Occultation of Venus (IOTA)

24 Venus 4.1° NW of Mars at 16h UT (morning sky). Magnitudes -4.5 and +1.2.

25 New Moon at 3:22 UT. Start of lunation 1068.
• Lunation Number (Wikipedia)

26 Mercury at greatest elongation, 20° east from Sun (evening sky) at 8h UT. Mag. +0.4, low in the WNW 30 minutes after sunset. The crescent Moon and Pleiades nearby.

26 Moon near the Pleiades at 22h UT (24° from Sun, evening sky).
• Pleiades (star cluster) (Wikipedia)

28 Moon at perigee (closest to Earth) at 6h UT (366,040 km; 32.6').

29 Venus brightest at 7h UT (evening sky). Mag. -4.5.

All times Universal Time (UT). USA Eastern Summer Time = UT - 4 hours.

Clear skies till next month!

Download the latest issue of The Evening Sky Map.

[Dantheman62]

I see that UT means universal time and eastern time is UT minus 4 hours, but what's the numbers in front of each event? I guess it's the date? like April 2 and so on?
hmmm did I just answer my own question? HaHa LOL

[Orion11]

LOL, yep.

[Dantheman62]

HaHa thought so, Oh and no lights out for an hour for me tonight because some little rodent, either a mouse, chipmunk, or squirrel chewed through a small wiring harness on my truck so I'm sitting here splicing it back together so I can drive it.
Little s...ts, LOL

[Dantheman62]

Here you go.............


Four of Saturn's moons parade by their parent


17 March 2009
A new Hubble image shows four of Saturn's moons circling the ringed planet.

On 24 February 2009, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a photo sequence of four moons of Saturn passing in front of their parent planet. The moons, from far left to right, are the white icy moons Enceladus and Dione, the large orange moon Titan, and icy Mimas. Due to the angle of the Sun, they are each preceded by their own shadow.
These rare moon transits only happen when the tilt of Saturn's ring plane is nearly edge-on as seen from the Earth. Saturn's rings will be perfectly edge on to our line of sight on 10 August and 4 September 2009. Unfortunately, Saturn will be too close to the Sun to be seen by viewers on Earth at that time. This ring-plane crossing occurs every 14-15 years. In 1995-96 Hubble witnessed the previous ring plane crossing, as well as many moon transits, and helped to discover several new moons of Saturn.

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMCMLJTYRF_index_0.html

[Dantheman62]

Hubble provides new evidence for dark matter around small galaxies


12 March 2009
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a strong new line of evidence that galaxies are embedded in halos of dark matter.

Peering into the tumultuous heart of the nearby Perseus galaxy cluster, Hubble discovered a large population of small galaxies that have remained intact while larger galaxies around them are being ripped apart by the gravitational tug of other galaxies.


The Hubble images provide further evidence that the undisturbed galaxies are enshrouded by a 'cushion' of dark matter that protects them from their rough-and-tumble neighbourhood.


Perseus Dwarf Galaxy
Dark matter is an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the Universe's mass. Astronomers have deduced the existence of dark matter by observing its gravitational influence on normal matter, such as stars, gas and dust.

"We were surprised to find so many dwarf galaxies in the core of this cluster that were so smooth and round and had no evidence at all of any kind of disturbance," says astronomer Christopher Conselice of the University of Nottingham, UK, leader of the team that made the Hubble observations. "These dwarfs are very old galaxies that have been in the cluster for a long time. So if something was going to disrupt them, it would have happened by now. They must be very, very dark-matter-dominated galaxies."

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMM2NITYRF_index_0.html

[Dantheman62]

Stars forced to relocate near the Southern Fish


3 March 2009
A new Hubble image shows three galaxies locked in a gravitational tug-of-war that may result in the eventual demise of one of them.

About 100 million light-years away, in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish), three galaxies are playing a game of gravitational give-and-take that might ultimately lead to their merger into one enormous entity.

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM5S9CDNRF_index_0.html


Trio of galaxies mixes it up

[Dantheman62]

Black hole found in Omega Centauri


Omega Centauri has been known to be an unusual globular cluster for a long time. A new result obtained by Hubble and the Gemini Observatory reveals that the globular cluster may have a rare intermediate-mass black hole hidden in its centre, implying that it is likely not a globular cluster at all, but a dwarf galaxy stripped of its outer stars.

Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky, is visible from Earth with the naked eye and is one of the favourite celestial objects for stargazers from the southern hemisphere. Although 17 000 light-years away, it located just above the plane of the Milky Way and appears almost as large as the full Moon when seen from a dark, rural area.

Images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and data from the GMOS spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope in Chile show that Omega Centauri appears to harbour an elusive and rare intermediate-mass black hole in its centre.

Go to this link to see a cool zoom in feature http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMPGM5QGEF_index_0.html

[Orion11]

hellz yea!!

nice additions bro!!

great stuff!! Thanks!!!

[Dantheman62]

HaHa that will give you some stuff to read on for awhile, I love that picture of Saturn and Saturns moons going across it, awesome.