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Home , 30 Persei, 31 Persei, 52 Hydrae, ALGOL, Alpha Persei, Alpha Persei Cluster

CHART FOR MID-LATITUDES OF THE What ’s Out To nigh t? OPT2IMIZED FOR

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Instructions

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u C M L I r E M s C E R e I O M O N x i E E l u x M O l t N 1 l i z G r 1 R o t I A C P a 1 l l s o E R e S E C B N 4 S e n A 4 C U M D Sickl N N e e A n O L e I W e E s D b O R I o u e l S O R V a I g l E I N R e R t A O e G C IN B O Regu M f lus o n n o lt 2 l y o e c e i 4 g ro r i B M R P O h S ip O a R S RA E HYD C S O p N ic SEX O a TANS M s iu ir CR S AT ER CO S R U VU P S IS E N R L CA O 41 AJ M M

H Y A DR B A XIS M PY LU CO PIS AN UP 35 TLIA P r1 C e r ic la N u c ct no e i bj B O r ta ll S wi ble at en ou r th wh D ta o h a s tw g ne e rou 0x r r O om th t 5 ste ste ec ed e a Mag Clu lu la b ew op x. nitu tar ar C bu vi sc 00 The position of any visible, naked-eye des S ul Ne ele o 1 lob ary t t –1 G net 0 Sou izon Pla la is indicated for the 15th of the 1 2 th Hor ebu 3 4 N laxy month with a size matching its magni - Ga tude. If the planet moves significatnly April 2020 Planet Notes during a month, other positions will be noted with dates. The (15th of month) , at –4.5, sets in the west about 4 hours Distances planets are from the 15th of this month: is the path of the through the after the Sun. , at magnitude +0.6, in , rises in the east Venus : 50,000,000 miles, Mars : 125,000,000 miles sky but the planets and move around 3:30 AM. , at magnitude –2.2, in Sagittarius, rises in the Jupiter : 473,000,000 miles, : 936,000,000 miles. east about 3 AM. Saturn , at magnitude +0.6, in Capricornus, rises along it, too. It passes through around 3 AM behind Jupiter. SO, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars rise in that the of the . order, all fairly close to one another. April Notes Brightest Stars The bright Winter constellations of /MINOR, . In . Magnitude +1. Distance: 65 ly. Orange , , TAURUS and hover in the west. Orion’s 45 times the diamter of our Sun. , with and , form the Winter Trian - . In BOOTES. Magnitude –0.04. Distance: 37 ly. gle . At the top of the sky is with its reverse question mark Diameter: 26 times the Sun’s. It’s an Orange Giant. (the Sickle) punctuated by the kingly star, Regulus . The Big Dip - Betelgeuse . In ORION. Magnitude +0.56. Distance: 428 ly. per is due north of LEO (their “backs” face each other). The han - Red Supergiant with a diameter 650 times the Sun‘s. . In AURIGA . Magnitude +0.1. Distance: 42 ly. dle of the dipper curves and points to the star Arcturus in Diameter: 15 times the Sun’s. It’s actually 4 orbiting stars. BOOTES and if you continue the curve, you will encounter . In GEMINI. Magnitude +1.6. Distance: 52 ly. in . In front of Leo is containing the Beehive sprin - Favorite that is twice the diameter of the Sun. kle of stars and to Leo’s rear is another sprinkle of stars in Coma . In . Magnitude +2. Distance: 431 ly. Berenices. Both sprinkles can be seen easily with . 2,400 times brighter than the Sun. . . In GEMINI. Magnitude +1.2. Distance: 34 ly. Clusters, Nebulae, + Diameter is 8.8 times the Sun’s & 46 times brighter. ly = , a unit of distance. 1 ly = 6 trillion miles. Procyon . In . Magnitude +0.4. Distance: 11.4 ly. Cluster . Distance: 600 ly / Diameter: 31 ly / Diameter is 2 times the Sun’s & 7.5 times brighter. Castor Double Star . Favorite double star. Need a telescope with . In ORION. Magnitude +1.3. Distance: 3200 ly. 50x to 100x to see Castor separate into two stars. Magni - Diameter: 222 times the Sun’s. Blue- Supergiant. tudes of two stars are 1.9 and 3.0. In GEMINI. Sirius . Rising in CANIS MAJOR. Magnitude –1.44. Distance: 8.6 ly. Double Cluster . Two side-by-side clusters. Distances: 7,200 ly / The very brightest star in the whole sky but some planets, like Diameters: 63 ly / Mag 3.5 / Span 1° / 320 stars total. Best in Jupiter and Venus, are brighter. It has a diameter 1.8 times that a telescope but visible with eyes in dark skies. In . of the Sun and is 23 times brighter. 7th closest star to us. M35 . Cluster. Distance: 3000 ly / Diameter: 24 ly / Mag 5 / Spans Spica . In VIRGO. Magnitude +1.1. Distance: 262 ly. Actually two 28' / 200 stars. In GEMINI. close stars revolving around each other in 4 days. M34 . Large Cluster. Distance: 1,400 ly / Diameter: 14 ly / Mag 5.2 / Spans 35' / 60 stars. Try with binoculars, too. In PERSEUS. Mythology M36 . Cluster. Distance: 3,700 ly / Diameter: 13 ly / Mag 6.0 / FOR THE CENTRAL CONSTELLATIONS, NORTH TO SOUTH Spans 12' / 60 stars. Try with binoculars, too. In AURIGA. Arcas and his beautiful mother, Callisto were turned into the M37 . Cluster. Distance: 4,200 ly / Diameter: 29 ly / Mag 5.6 / Little and Big Bears, URSA MINOR and MAJOR because of jeal - Spans 24' / 150 stars. Try with binoculars, too. In AURIGA. ous Juno, wife of promiscuous Jupiter. M42 . Orion . Brightest nebula in the northern sky. About During a war between the Titans and Olympians, , the 30 ly in diameter and 1,760 ly away. Mag 4 / Spans 1°. Dragon was flung to the North and frozen in place by the cold. M44 . Beehive Cluster. Distance: 610 ly / Diameter: 16 ly / Regulus , the brightest star in LEO , the Lion has several mean - Mag 3 / Spans 1.6° / 50 stars. In CANCER. ings including regal, king and mighty. Before him is CANCER , M81/82 . Bode’s Galaxies. Visible in many light polluted skies. M82 shaped like a cigar. Mags 6.8/8.1. In . the Crab sent to prevent from killing the nine-headed as one of his twelve labors toward a virtuous . M104 . Sombrero . Distance: 48 million ly / Diameter: 126,000 ly / Mag 8.1 / Spans 9'. In VIRGO. was a placed in the heavens on Hydra’s back by . Cluster. Spans about 2° in sky or 4 Moon diameters. for being slow for bringing water and lying about his tar - To the eyes, it looks like a little dipper but it is NOT the Little diness. represents the container of water that is always Dipper! Distance: 440 ly / Diameter: 15 ly / Mag 1.2 / 100 out of reach of Corvus. stars. In TAURUS. VELA is the sail of the once giant constellation, , sailed by Jason, that was divided into parts by Lacaille in 1763. Observing Tips , & were constellations added in If possible, observe at a dark location and when the Moon is 1690 and ANTILIA in1763. not bright. A bright Moon will make it more difficult to see the April Moon Phases stars and impossible to see clusters, nebulae and galaxies. Only First Quarter . Wednesday, April 1 , 5:21 am, CDT a telescope at lower magnifications, around 50x, is required Full Moon . Tuesday, April 7 , 9:35 pm, CDT to see the objects listed above. The planets and Moon are best Third or Last Quarter . Tuesday, April 14 , 5:56 pm, CDT observed with a telescope around 100x. To get a feel for the size New Moon . Wednesday, April 22 , 9:26 pm, CDT of objects, the Moon extends 30' (30 arc minutes). The binocu - First Quarter . Thursday, April 30 , 3:38 pm, CDT lar objects are best with binoculars because these objects are large in size—telescopes have too much magnification. What ’s Out To nigh t? Meteor Showers April 2020 Sky Chart The LYRIDS peak around April 22 with 15 –20 meteors/hour. Visit: WhatsOutTonight.com Copyright ©2020 by Ken Graun. All rights reserved. Email: [email protected] • Phone: (520) 743-3200 What ’s Out To nigh t?

Clusters, Nebulae &S Gkayla xCiehs art Supplement Planets An is a group of several to hundreds of stars The planets are best observed with a telescope using magnifi - that were born out of the same nebula cloud. A group often forms cations from 50x to 200x. The five naked-eye planets are Mer - a pretty pattern. The Pleiades and Praesepe are great examples. cury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Venus is extremely bright Open clusters reside in our Galaxy. Our Sun is no and hugs close to the Sun, so you see it for a short time in the longer in its group. west after sunset or in the east before sunrise. Jupiter can be out Globular Clusters look like fuzzy balls because they contain all night and always outshines any star. Everyone enjoys its 4 tens of thousands stars held together by their mutual . All Galilean and cloud bands, easily visible at 50x. It is pos - of the globulars that can be seen in the sky are part of our Milky sible to see the moons with well-focused binoculars. Saturn is Way Galaxy, and there are about 200 of them that surround our everyone’s favorite because of its beautiful rings. Mars gets close galaxy like a halo. M22 in SAGITTARIUS is a northern favorite. to Earth about every 2 at which time it is very bright. This A is an old term that has nothing to do is the best time to observe it but you need higher magnifi - At with the planets. Instead, it is a round or symmetrical neb - arm ’s cations around 150x to see the surface coloration. length... ula that is the shed atmosphere of a dying star. At its center Distance is a star. When our Sun dies, it will create a plan - Diameter Rotation Revolution In Miles Its from Sun Its Year etary nebula. These objects have diameters of a few light In Miles years and are located in our galaxy. The Ring Nebula, M57, SUN 865,000 30 days —— One thumb 3,032 59 days 36,000,000 88 days in is a favorite. width is 4 Moon A Nebula is a giant gas cloud that is located in diameters. VENUS 7,521 243 days 67,000,000 225 days EARTH 7,926 24 hours 93,000,000 365 days our galaxy. Within these clouds, concentrations of gas can MARS 4,228 24.6 hours 142,000,000 687 days occur and gravitationally condense to form stars and ac - JUPITER 88,844 9.8 hours 484,000,000 11.8 years SATURN 74,900 10.2 hours 887,000,000 29 years companying planets. A set of stars created by a nebula is Orion ’s height is known as an Open Cluster. The Orion Nebula, M42 is a fa - one hand span. 31,764 17.9 hours 1,800,000,000 84 years vorite. The nebulae we can see are inside our galaxy. 30,777 19.2 hours 2,800,000,000 164 years 1,433 6.4 days 3,700,000,000 248 years Galaxies contain billions of stars. All galaxies are beyond The width of a our Milky Way Galaxy, where our Sun resides. When you are fist spans the ’s observing a galaxy, you are looking through our galaxy into bowl. Light Year (ly) & Nearest Stars the true depths of the . The , M31 A Light Year (ly) is a unit of length and is equal to the dis - can be seen with the . tance light travels in one year. Since light moves at the rate of Double Stars Our 186,282 miles a second, one light year is nearly 6 trillion miles long. The closest nighttime star visible to the naked eye is A Double Star is a star that looks like one star but Moon Alpha ( a) Centauri in the constellation CENTARUS. Plato when magnified sufficiently (from 6x to 200x), it SINUS IRIDUM shines brightly at magnitude –0.01 separates into two or more stars. Some are very MARE OCEAN SERENITY PROCELLARUM and is just 4.4 light years away. The very closest star MARE pretty because of contrasting colors. Castor in CRISIUM MARE TRANQUILITY is Proxima in CENTARUS at just 4.22 ly away. It is GEMINI is a favorite and in is Kepler Copernicus too faint to see with the eyes because it shines at well liked for its blue & gold colors. Ptolemaeus Alphonsus magnitude +11. The second closest star visible to Straight Moon Wall the naked eye is Sirius at 8.6 ly followed by Epsilon Tycho (e) Eridani at 10.5 ly and Procyon at 11.4 ly. There Starting from New Moon, the Moon cycles through are several stars closer than these three but they are phases every 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 3 seconds. too faint to be seen with the naked eye. It is 2,160 miles in diameter and averages 239,000 miles from Earth. A New Moon is not visible in the sky because the Moon is po - Guide to the Stars sitioned very close to the Sun. Solar eclipses occur at New Moon. • 11-inch diameter, ISBN 1-928771-03-3 • 16-inch diameter, ISBN 1-928771-01-7 The best time to observe the Moon is during a phase because the • Equatorial, ISBN 1-928771-77-7 • , ISBN 1-928771-11-4 craters appear their sharpest near the terminator, the line that sep - • Kid’s, ISBN 1-928771-22-X arates the lighted side (day side) from the dark side (night side). kenpress.com

Cycle of Moon Phases What ’s Out To nigh t?

From To NEW NEW MOON MOON Sky Charts

WAXING FIRST WAXING FU LL WANING LAST WANING Visit: WhatsOutTonight.com CRESCENT QUARTER GIBBOUS MOON GIBBOUS QUARTER CRESCENT Copyright ©2020 by Ken Graun. All rights reserved. Email: [email protected] • Phone: (520) 743-3200