Friends of the Austin Planetarium

Astronomy News - April 2008

Hello, and welcome to the monthly astronomy news page!

Notice The May Astronews is somewhat delayed because we are busy with the Pecan Street festival! We will have a double booth at the festival giving away space related items. NASA, JPL, the Hubble Science Institute and Nasa's Space place all donated items for us to give away for free. Additionally we will raffle of a $500 telescope again, and come check out our brand new "Rocket Donation Box".

The festival is May 3 & 4. For more information on this free event please check: here. Hope to see you at Pecan Street!

Of course the main goal of the Friends of the Austin Planetarium is fund raising to make possible building a planetarium in Austin. But we thought it would be nice to also start offering some astronomy information. After all, a planetarium is all about the fun of astronomy and astronomy education.

This page offers some limited information about astronomical events for the Austin area this month. Sections that will always be included on this page are:

A calendar depicting moon phases and (if applicable) other events such as meteor showers, star parties, etc.
The visibility of the ISS (International Space Station) from Austin
Each planet visible to the naked eye with some information, whether it is for observing purposes or current missions to these planets.
A special events section, where a more detailed description is given of astronomical events for this month.
A Did You Know? section where we discuss each month a different astronomy or related topic.

If you have any astronomy related questions, this is your chance to Ask the Board! The board of the Friends of the Austin Planetarium consists of amateur astronomers and an astronomer/lecturer from a major Planetarium in Europe. We will be more than happy to answer your astronomy questions.

Monthly Calendar

This Month's Highlights

April 5: New Moon
April 8: Moon meets Pleiades!
April 11: Moon meets Mars!
April 11: First Quarter Moon
April 14: Moon Meets Saturn!
April 20: Full Moon
April 27: Moon Meets Jupiter!
April 28: Last Quarter Moon

The Planets

Mercury: Mercury will be on the complete other side of the Sun from us, and will therefore be hidden from us all month long. As a matter of fact Mercury will be directly opposite from us (Superior Conjunction) on April 16.
Venus: Venus is continuing its downward motion and is pretty much too low for us to see at dawn. We will have to wait till June when Venus re-appears on the other side of the Sun.
Mars: Mars is still stealing the show, high over head. Our red neighbor is speeding away from us (or actually, we are speeding away from Mars because the Earth moves faster than does Mars.) but is still very easily found. Right after sunset Mars is very high in the western sky and does not set until after midnight
Jupiter: You will have to get up early to catch Jupiter, where he shines brightly in the southeastern sky. This month we will get a helping hand from the Moon, check out the 'Special Events' section below!
Saturn: Saturn is right now still wonderfully positioned for observing. He is already nice and high at Sunset and very bright. Through binoculars you may be able to see that the planet is not round but oval due to the rings. Through even a small telescope Saturn is putting on a magnificent show with beautiful rings and all.

See the International Space Station from Austin

In the first 11 days of April we cannot see the International Space Station from Austin, but from the 12th on we once again get plenty of opportunities. As the ISS grows with more modules, larger solar panels and now also the large robot called DEXTR the ISS will be brighter in the sky then ever before.

If you click on the dates you will get a pop-up with a small sky-chart: the path of the ISS is drawn as a line.

Date Mag Starts Max. Altitude Ends

Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.

12 Apr -0.6 20:53:16 10 NNW 20:55:30 20 NE 20:56:14 19 ENE

13 Apr -2.6 21:14:06 10 NW 21:16:57 87 ENE 21:17:10 74 SE

14 Apr -0.1 21:35:59 10 W 21:38:06 19 SW 21:38:09 19 SW

15 Apr -2.4 20:21:43 10 NW 20:24:33 75 NE 20:27:22 10 SE

16 Apr -0.1 20:43:22 10 WNW 20:45:38 21 SW 20:47:53 10 S

29 Apr -0.9 06:08:53 10 SSW 06:11:28 33 SE 06:14:04 10 ENE

30 Apr -1.9 06:29:10 10 WSW 06:31:54 46 NW 06:34:39 10 NNE

Special Event of the Month

Of course we all have seen the Moon. Probably you have seen our closest neighbor many hundreds of times. But did you know that sometimes the Moon can be of great help finding stars and planets? This month we get an especially wonderful helping hand from the Moon. The Moon is very bright. Of course not as bright as the Sun, but still much brighter then anything else we can see in the sky. So, most of the time the Moon is a distraction, and makes observing more difficult. A star party when there is a full Moon is often considered silly because the "light pollution" from the Moon interferes with observing other sky-wonders.

For this month our show starts on April 4th. This will be just before New Moon, and the Moon will be a very thin sliver. For this showing you will have to look in the Eastern sky just before Sunset and the Moon will be very close to Venus.

A couple of days later, on April 8, the Moon, which will be waxing (=growing) now because we are after New Moon, the Moon will come very close to the Pleiades. This is great, because the Moon is still very dim and its glare will not outshine the Pleiades. If you lived further up north you may even see the Moon covering a couple of the stars of the Pleiades, but here in the deep south we will not see that. But still a very lovely pairing, definitely worth your time. Look to the western sky just after Sunset to catch this show.

Next installment of our Moon-led show is on April 11 where the Moon will pay our red neighbor a visit: Mars. Of course the Moon is not really close to Mars, but it appears this way in our sky. If you look once an hour or so starting at 8 pm, you actually will be able to tell that the Moon is moving through the sky!

On April 14 and 15 the Moon will be pointing out Saturn and the bright star Regulus. And finally our Moon-led star show comes to an end on the early morning of April 27 when the Moon will be just below Jupiter. Have fun catching this month long show!

Did You Know?

Four times a year, the Friends of the Austin Planetarium (FOTAP) sends out a free newsletter. This newsletter details our progress bringing a planetarium to Austin, details projects we participate in and also talkes about upcoming events that we are hosting or where we will be present.

If you are interested in astronomy, science education and/or FOTAP's efforts this newsletter is a must. Our latest Winter 2008 newlsterrer is available for download here (opens new window). Please use the form below to sign up for future releases of our newsletter and stay up to date!

Please note: FOTAP will never sell or give away your information to any other group, person or entity without your approval.

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This page is maintained and developed by Torvald Hessel and Steve Rung.

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