SKYLIGHTS

Skylights featured on Astronomy Picture of the Day

Skylights featured nine times on Earth Science Picture of the Day: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 -- Full List Restored!

Photo of the Week.. Soaring in fresh air.

Astronomy news for the two weeks starting Friday, April 7, 2017.

Please Note

Skylights has been produced in various forms for 31 years, since 1985, and even before that as an annual bulletin. It's now time to simplify Skylights and bring part of it to a close. We will continue to list lunar phases, planetary passages, and other significant events for the coming two weeks on this website, but by bullet, not by prose text. Because there will no longer be any script, the telephone and emailing services have been dropped. The Star of the Week will continue as before, as will the Photo of the Week. Thanks all for your support.
Jim Kaler

The next Skylights will appear Friday, April 21.

The Moon
- We'll have a lot of Moonlight.
- Full Moon, Sunday, April 10, around midnight.
- Waning gibbous ends at third quarter, Wednesday, April 19, about the time of moonset.
- Moon west of the star Vindemiatrix, evening of Sunday, April 9.
- Moon south of Leo, evening of Friday, April 7.
- Moon just east of Jupiter, night of Monday, April 10.
- Moon above Antares, morning of Saturday, April 16
- Moon at apogee, farthest from Earth, Friday, April 15.
Planets and the Solar System
- Mercury goes through inferior conjunction with the Sun, Thursday, April 20.
- Uranus in conjunction with the Sun, Friday, April 14,
- Jupiter in opposition to the Sun, Friday April 7. Jupiter than rises at sunset, sets at sunrise, and transits the meridian about as Saturn rises.
- Lyrid Meteor shower peaks April 22-23; it's the detritus of Comet 1861 I.
The Sky
- In the early evening, Pollux and Castor in Gemini are nearly overhead. To the south is Procyon in Canis Minor, Orion's smaller dog. To the north of the Twins lie the faint stars of the modernconstellation Lynx, the, uh, Lynx. To the far south, from the northern hemisphere, the stars of Argo, the Ship, float along the horizon, led by Vela the Sails, with Carina, the Hull, to the southeast, and Puppis, the Stern, to the north of the second brightest star of the sky, Canopus.

Primary source: The Astronomical Almanac.

Copyright © James B. Kaler, all rights reserved. The written contents and (unless otherwise specified) the photograph are the property of the author and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the author's consent except in fair use for educational purposes.