5 Must See Skywatching Events in April 2014

 

 

April 8 2014

 

 

Rare Sight: Mars, Earth and Sun Will Align 

Mars will be exactly opposite the sun in the sky in a rare cosmic alignment set to take place Tuesday (April 8).

Here are 11 of the most noteworthy skywatching events that will take place in 2014. SPACE.com’s Night Sky column will provide more extensive coverage of these events as they draw closer.

 

April 14-15: An “M&M” Night 

 

The April Lyrids are a meteor shower lasting from April 16 to April 26 each year.

 

April 28-29: A “Ring of Fire” Eclipse that Nobody Will See?

 

Are you prepared?

 

 

Mars will be exactly opposite the sun in the sky in a rare cosmic alignment set to take place Tuesday (April 8).

Here are 11 of the most noteworthy skywatching events that will take place in 2014. SPACE.com’s Night Sky column will provide more extensive coverage of these events as they draw closer.

April 14-15: An “M&M” Night 

During the overnight hours, it will be a night first for Mars and later for the full moon. Mars will come to within 57.4 million miles (92.4 million km) of our planet, making its closest approach to Earth since January 2008. 

All through the night, Mars will resemble a dazzling star shining with a steady fiery -colored tint; its brightness will match Sirius, the most luminous of all the stars. As a bonus, later that very same night (actually the early hours of April 15), North America will have a ringside seat to a total lunar eclipse when the full moon becomes transformed into a mottled reddish ball for 78 minutes as it is completely immersed in the shadow of the Earth.

This total lunar eclipse will be the first one widely visible from North America in nearly 3.5 years. The Americas will have the best view of this eclipse, although over Canada’s Maritime provinces, moonset will intervene near the end of totality. Of special interest is the fact that the moon will appear quite near to the bright star Spica, in the constellation Virgo, during the eclipse.

The moon and Spica actually will be in conjunction a couple of hours prior to the onset of totality, but they’re still relatively near to each other when the eclipse gets underway.

The April Lyrids are a meteor shower lasting from April 16 to April 26 each year. The radiant of the meteor shower is located in the constellation Lyra, near this constellation’s brightest star, Alpha Lyrae (proper name Vega). Their peak is typically around April 22 each year.

The source of the meteor shower is particles of dust shed by the long-period Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. The April Lyrids are the strongest annual shower of meteors from debris of a long-period comet, mainly because as far as other intermediate long-period comets go (200 – 10,000 years), this one has a relatively short orbital period of about 415 years. The Lyrids have been observed for the past 2600 years.

April 28-29: A “Ring of Fire” Eclipse that Nobody Will See?

It is quite possible that only penguins will witness the annular (ring) phase of this eclipse, as it will occur within the uninhabited region of Wilkes Land in Antarctica. A partial solar eclipse will be visible from Australia. Because the axis of the moon’s antumbral shadow misses the Earth and only its edge grazes Antarctica, it makes an accurate prediction of the duration of annularity all but impossible. 

Read more here:
http://www.space.com/24048-best-skywa…