NASA’s skywatching tips for this month include a meteor shower, planets at dusk and dawn, and a distant “city” of stars.
Let’s kick off with the Lyrids, described by NASA as a “modest” meteor shower that promises up to 15 sightings per hour during its peak overnight on April 21 and into the following morning.
“The Lyrids are best observed from the Northern Hemisphere, but can be seen from south of the equator as well,” NASA points out. “View them after about 10:30 p.m. local time until dawn, with the best viewing around 5 a.m.”
As with the every meteor shower, for the best view, find a spot away from city lights or any other kind of light pollution, and with the broadest possible view of the sky. Also, give your eyes a little time to adjust to the darkness as you try to spot the bright flashes of light streaking across the sky.
There are plenty of planets to spot during April, too. Mars, for example, will be high overhead in the south each evening. You can identify it by its salmon-pink color, and when you do, ponder for a moment that NASA has a couple of rovers tootling across the martian surface.
Morning skies this month offer a view of Venus — the brightest planet in our solar system — in the east before dawn, moving a little higher each morning as the month goes on.
And then, at the end of April, you can enjoy a wonderful view of Jupiter appearing close to the crescent moon in the western sky about half an hour after sunset.
For the final tip, you’ll need to grab a pair of binoculars or a telescope. It’s a chance to view a globular cluster known as M3, a vast collection of stars 34,000 light-years from Earth in our galaxy’s outer reaches. When viewed through binoculars, it appears as a small, fuzzy, patch of light. With a small telescope, however, you’ll see a more defined glow with a slightly grainy texture, and using a telescope that’s 8 inches or larger, the cluster appears as hundreds of individual stars.
“Globular clusters contain some of the oldest stars in the universe, often over 10 billion years old,” NASA said. “M3 itself is probably 11 to 13 billion years old and contains around half a million stars. And it’s relatively easy to spot in April under dark skies with binoculars or a small telescope.”
For more information on how to locate April’s recommendations, check out NASA’s video midway down the page.