April 1999

by Steve Stefanik

Did you remember to turn your clocks ahead this morning? We officially began Eastern Daylight Savings Time at 02:00 a.m. which means the sun rose at 07:23 a.m. instead of 06:23 a.m. this morning and will set at 8:15 p.m. instead of 7:15 p.m. This will make the daylight hours seem noticeably longer. Although the sun won’t rise until almost 7:30 in the morning it will be light enough to see by 6:00 a.m. and won’t be completely dark until 8:44 p.m. in the evening making more than 14 hours of daylight. We’ll continue to gain another 2 minutes or so each day until we reach the summer solstice on June 21 when the sun will rise by 6:07 a.m. and will not set until 9:28 p.m. EDT. From then on we’ll begin losing precious minutes of daylight once again so enjoy it while you can.

As the sun sets and gives way to evening twilight, the brilliant -4.0 magnitude planet Venus is high in western the sky. You can’t miss it. It continues to rise higher and higher with each passing day and doesn’t set until 11:30 p.m. EDT by month’s end. On the evenings of April 11 and 12 look for it near the Pleiades open star cluster which looks like a miniature "dipper". On the evening of April 18, it will be stationed to the right of the waxing crescent moon and the brightest red star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus.

The second planet to spot is the somewhat dimmer +0.2 magnitude Saturn about 15 degrees below Venus. You’ve got to hurry because it is plummeting toward the western horizon on its way toward conjunction with the sun on April 27.

The planet Mars on the other hand, is rising rapidly in the east by about an hour after evening twilight and earlier with each passing night on its way toward opposition on April 24. It will also be closest to Earth on May 1. This only occurs every two years because its orbital period is twice as long as ours. Its only during this time when you can see it’s surface details with a telescope. Look for the bright red-orange -1.5 sphere near the bright blue first magnitude star Spica in the constellation Virgo.

Speaking of Virgo, Spring is also the time for galaxy hunting amongst the Virgo Cluster of galaxies but of couse you’ll need a telescope to do so and the bigger, the better!

The planet Pluto rises next among the stars of Ophiuchus shortly after mid-night but you’ll need a telescope with at least an 8 inch aperature, some good star charts, and several successive clear nights to track down this elusive +14.0 magnitude planet.

Somewhat easier to locate are the twin planets of Uranus and Neptune at magnitudes +5.8 and +7.9. Look for them just before dawn among the stars of Capricorn in the southeast.

The planet Mercury has a poor morning aparition this month. Look for it by scanning the eastern horizon with binoculars 30 minutes before sunrise but be careful to not inadvertently look at the sun through them!

Jupiter is just emerging from behind the sun in the east. You may get a glimpse of it by months’s end just before dawn.