Skylights featured four times on Earth Science
Picture of the Day: 1
, 2
, 3
, 4
.
Photo of the Week.. A rainbow gives a promise of
summer.
Astronomy news for short week starting Friday, April 25, 2003.
The Moon wanes through its crescent phase in the morning sky this
week as it approaches new, the phase passed on May 1 just about the
time of sunrise (and of course at the same time, moonrise), to
celebrate "May
Day." Just four hours before, the Moon also passes apogee,
where it is farthest from the Earth. On Friday the 25th, the Moon
passes well to the south of Uranus
. Much better, the morning of Monday the 28th look for the
thin crescent to the right (and south) of bright Venus,
both of which will be low in the east in fairly bright twilight,
the planet now rising only about an hour before sunrise. Venus
will maintain this relation to the Sun for another couple
months, and then during July and August will slowly be lost to the
solar glare.
Our astronomical roots are everywhere. May Day, rather the evening
before (May Eve), is actually an astronomical holiday, a "cross-
quarter day" that fits in between the times of passage of the Sun
across the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice, quite like
Groundhog Day, which falls between the first days of winter and
spring, and Halloween, which falls between the start of autumn and
winter.
The evening sky still sees
Jupiter, high to the south in Cancer at the end of twilight, and Saturn
, well to the west in departing Taurus, the ringed planet now setting around 11:30 Daylight
Time. In between the setting of Saturn and the rising of Venus
lies Mars.
Now in Capricornus, the red planet
rises around 2 AM Daylight Time. In another month it will make the
transition to evening rise, coming up at 12 midnight Standard Time
(1 AM Daylight).
While the winter stars are not much with us any longer, brilliant
Sirius still lingers in the early
evening southwest. Now is the time for Spring, and great Leo the Lion, which stalks high to the
south at 9 PM. Above and to the north lies the bowl of the Big Dipper, and in between small Leo Minor. To the south lie the dim
constellations of Sextans (the
Sextant) and ancient Crater (the
Cup). Crossing the central part of ancient Hydra (the Water Serpent), we arrive at the obscure
modern figure Antlia (the, of all
things, Air Pump, a clear artifact of its time). From there down are the bright stars of Vela (the Sails), part of Argo (Jason's Ship), which is properly
visible only from southern latitudes.
