Saturn rises in Aquarius shortly after 5 A.M. native time on April 1, simply as twilight begins. It’s a brief statement window because the Saturn season opens, however by April 30, issues have improved, with Saturn rising two hours earlier and reaching 8° excessive on the first onset of twilight. It glows at magnitude 0.9, outshining all the celebrities on this area of sky. A waning crescent Moon hangs 5° beneath the ringed planet on April 16.
Keen observers swinging a telescope to Saturn low within the sky shall be pleasantly rewarded by its 16″-wide disk and a skinny set of rings, now inclined by solely 9° to our line of sight. They’ll slender one other couple of levels because it heads towards an August opposition. Within the meantime, benefit from the reappearance of the gas giant in our skies, together with its assortment of moons. Titan shall be simple to identify late this month, shining at eighth magnitude and due west of Saturn on April 30.
Neptune is simply reappearing from behind the Solar in morning twilight. Its magnitude 7.8 disk is poorly positioned for statement in Pisces, notably early within the month. By April 30, it’s simply 7° excessive an hour earlier than dawn.
Jupiter is in conjunction with the Solar April 11 and never seen this month.
This month’s April 20 solar eclipse is an uncommon “hybrid” eclipse. The eclipse begins and ends as an annular eclipse, however for many of its path, it’s total. This happens as a result of the curvature of Earth causes the Moon’s shadow to fall wanting reaching the floor for the east and west extremities of the observe, the place our planet’s floor curves away. However the eclipse is total alongside the central a part of the observe. Hybrid eclipses are uncommon, with simply 5 to 24 per century.
April’s solar eclipse begins as an annular eclipse at dawn over the waters of the south Indian Ocean and makes landfall on a tiny promontory of the Cape Vary Nationwide Park, situated 800 miles north of Perth, Australia. Totality lasts some 62 seconds at this distant location.
The second of biggest eclipse, the place totality lasts 1 minute 16 seconds, lies simply off the coast of Timor. The observe reaches tropical West Papua within the early afternoon, the place mountains rise to just about 10,000 ft and generate a lot of climate. The eclipse observe briefly visits the island of Biak (65 seconds of totality), which has some growing vacationer facilities and is the placement of a significant battle of World Conflict II. The observe then races throughout the Pacific Ocean, turning into an annular eclipse once more close to sundown, simply south of the Marshall Islands.
The subsequent solar eclipse is an annular eclipse on Oct. 14 throughout the western U.S. and northern South America. It can function a preview for the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse that may cross elements of Mexico, the U.S., and Canada.
