THE OBSERVERNewsletter of The Tri-State Astronomers

April 2018 Volume 33 Number 4

TristateAstronomers.org

MONTH AT A GLANCE

©BlueMarmot / CalculatorCat.Com

Last Quarter Moon Sun Apr 08

Pluto, Mars, Saturn Fri Apr 13, 5:00 AM All near the handle of the teapot(Sagittarius) in the South East. Pluto best visibility of the year.

New Moon Sun Apr 15

Lyrid Meteor Shower Start Mon Apr 16 Near Vega

Club Meeting Wed Apr 18, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Astro JEOPARDY! Brish Planetarium Hagerstown, Md

Antietam Star Party Fri Apr 20, 7:00 PM

Antietam Star Party Sat Apr 21, 7:00 PM

First Quarter Moon Sun Apr 22

Lyrid Meteor Shower Peak 10 to 20 per Hour Sun Apr 22 NorthEast of Vega from 10 PM till morning

Lyrid Meteor Shower End Wed Apr 25

Full Moon Sun Apr 29

Annual Star Party at the Antietam National Battlefield

Where: Antietam National Battlefield Visitor Center, Sharpsburg, MDWhen: April 20 and 21, sunset until 11 pm both nights. Weather permitting.

MAP

This is one of our largest nighttime events of the year with over 600 guests each night at the Antietam National Battlefield Visitor Center in Sharpsburg, MD.

From dusk until 11pm. Arrive when you want. Stay as long as you want (at least until 11 pm).

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Early April 10:00 PM - Late April 9:00 PM

April Sky Map

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Our Friendly Skies by Chris Kopco, WCPS Planetarium Teacher

and Andy Smetzer, Tristate Astronomers

THE APRIL SKY

Though darkness is beginning to fall later and later, the weather is (hopefully) getting warmer and warmer, making for a later, but more comfortable viewing experience of the night sky.

This April we’ll begin by finding the Big Dipper high in the north. Using stars belonging to the constellation Ursa Major, we connect three stars to make a handle and four stars to make a cup to create the picture of the Big Dipper high in the sky. Within the Big Dipper you will find one of the most easy to spot double star pairs in the northern hemisphere. To find them locate the three stars that make up the handle of the Big Dipper and go to the middle star which is known as Mizar. Look closely here and just beside Mizar you can pick out another fainter star with the naked eye. This is Alcor and together Mizar and Alcor make up what is often referred to as the “Horse and Rider”.

Next we’ll turn to our left to look west where two prominent and fairly easy to find winter constellations are making their final evening appearances of the season. The first and most easily identified of these two is found by locating three bright stars lined up in a row. This is the belt of the mighty hunter Orion, with a bright reddish orange star above, Betelgeuse, marking one of the shoulders of the hunter, while the bright blue-white star below, Rigel, marks one of his legs, and with a curved group of stars to the west making a shield. For a beautiful binocular or telescopic target, look below the belt of Orion into the three “stars” that make his sword. The middle “star” is actually not a star at all, but is in fact the Orion, Nebula, a place where hundreds of new stars are being formed. This is an easy deep sky object to spot and the colors are breathtaking, so point your optical aid toward Orion’s sword and you won’t be disappointed!

Finally, look to the north of Orion’s shield and you’ll find a “V” shape in the west. This is the face of a bull named Taurus, with the bright star Aldebaran marking one of the eyes along with the other star at the top of the “V”. Extending from the tops of the “V” will take you to the tips of the bull’s horns, while further to the west, what appears to be a miniature dipper is actually the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, which marks the shoulder of the bull. To see the remnants of a star that exploded almost 1,000 years ago, point a telescope or binoculars a little north of the bull’s southernmost horn tip to find M1, the Crab Nebula.

For a more detailed tour of the night sky, download Skylights, the monthly podcast that takes you on a journey through the current night sky. Skylights can be found at www.wbplanetarium.weebly.com and on iTunes.

THE APRIL SOLAR SYSTEMEvening Planets

URANUS almost always requires optical aid to spot unless you’ve got very dark skies, and this month it will be even more diffi-cult to find than usual, as it starts the month setting only a little more than an hour after the sun in the west in the constellation Pisces. As the month wears on Uranus quickly gets too low on the horizon at sunset and is lost in the glare of the sun for the rest of April.

VENUS is also an evening planet this month, but unlike Uranus, is extremely bright at magnitude -3.9, and sets just before 9:15 p.m. to start the month. As we move through April, Venus sets later and later each night, setting just after 10:20 p.m.m by month’s end. Often referred to as the evening star when in the evening skies, Venus is brighter in the skies of Earth than any star aside from the sun, offering spectacular views all month in the west. Venus begins the month in the constellation Aries, shining brightly just north of a thin waxing crescent moon on the 17th, and moving into the constellation Taurus on the 19th where it will quickly move just south of the Pleiades on the evenings of April 24th - 26th.

JUPITER, our final evening planet rises in the east/southeast in the constellation Libra about 30 minutes after Venus has set. As the month wears on however, Jupiter gives us the opportunity to find the two brightest planets on opposite sides of the night sky as it rises earlier and earlier, shining brightly at magnitude -2.5, dimmer than Venus, but still brighter than any star in Earth’s skies aside from the sun. There are two opportunities to spot Jupiter with a waning gibbous month this April, on the 3rd and then again on the 30th when they both rise in the east/southeast before 9 p.m.

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Morning PlanetsMERCURY is not visible to start the month of April, hidden in the glare of the sun. However, look to the east as the month moves on to catch magnitude .4 Mercury low in the west and reaching greatest western elongation on the 29th.

MARS can be found in Sagittarius this April, moving quickly through the teapot shaped constellation, shining at magnitude .3 to start the month, gradually brightening to magnitude -.3 by month’s end. Mars and Saturn are on a collision course this month as an April 2nd conjunction brings them within a degree and a half of one another that evening in the skies of Earth. Of course this is only how it looks from the point of view from the Earth, as Mars and Saturn are many millions of miles apart from one another, even at their closest approach. After the conjunction, Mars continues speeding eastward through Sagittarius, rising just after 1:30 a.m. at the end of April, almost an hour earlier than at the beginning of the month.

SATURN rises just minutes before Mars to start the month, shining a little more dimly in Sagittarius at magnitude .5. Saturn also brightens a bit this month to magnitude .35, but moves much more slowly than Mars against the background stars, setting almost two hours earlier by the end of the month around 12:30 a.m. Look for Saturn, Mars and the moon in a tight grouping on the morning of April 7th.

NEPTUNE is not visible to begin the month of April, lost in the glare of the sun. However as the month wears on you can use a telescope or binoculars to find this ice giant low in the east just before the sky begins to brighten at dawn.

THE APRIL SUN AND MOONOn April 1st sunrise is at 6:56 a.m., while the sun sets at 7:34 p.m. for 12 hours and 38 minutes of daylight. By April 30th sunrise is at 6:13 a.m. with the sun setting later in the evening at 8:03 p.m. for 13 hours and 50 minutes of daylight, a 72 minute increase from the beginning of the month. The Sun enters the constellation Aries from Pisces April 18th. The change is caused by the Earth’s revolution around the Sun. The Sun seems to line up with distant background stars from our point of view from Earth, so the sky changes by seasons and months. The third quarter moon occurs on April 8th, the moon is new on April 15th, the first quarter moon appears in Earth’s skies on the 22nd, and the moon is full on April 29th.

SPECIAL EVENTSThe Lyrid Meteor Shower peaks this month on the evening of April 22nd into the morning of April 23rd. This meteor shower can produce about 20 meteors per hour on average at its peak, with some leaving bright persistent trains. With the first quarter moon setting before midnight, this will be a good year to catch the Lyrids, weather permitting.

There are also a couple of rocket launches of note currently slated for April (subject to change). On April 4th a Dragon CRS-24 cargo spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station at about 7 a.m. EDT. This arrival is of note because you can watch live coverage of the arrival on NASA TV with coverage starting at 5:30 a.m. Also of note is the launch of a mission we talked about last month, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which was rescheduled from March to April 16th.

WILLIAM BRISH PLANETARIUM / TRISTATE ASTRONOMERSThe William Brish Planetarium will hold programs on April 4th and 24th this April. Catch Earth, Moon & Sun at 5:30 p.m. for elementary through general audiences, and Two Small Pieces of Glass for general audiences at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4th. On Tuesday, April 24th the 5:30 program will be The Case of the Disappearing Planet for upper elementary through gener-al audiences, while the 7:00 program will be Dynamic Earth for general audiences. For more information visit: www.wbplane-tarium.weebly.com.

The next meeting for the TriState Astronomers will be held at the William Brish Planetarium Wednesday, April 18th at 7:00 p.m. All are welcome! For more information visit www.tristateastronomers.org

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Our Friendly Skies

Images from Starry Night Pro Plus 7

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AstronomyWeekend

atBlackwater Falls

State Park

September 6-82018

www.kvas.orgwww.blackwaterfalls.com

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UTREACH

April OutreachResearch Talk and Star Party-Occupational Therapy

Thu Apr 05, 7:30 PM - 10:00 PM Penn State Mont Alto

Mont Alto, PA

Heritage Academy - STEM Night Tue Apr 10, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

12215 Walnut Point West Hagerstown, MD

Boonsboro Elementary School STEAM Thu Apr 12, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM Boonsboro Elementary School

Boonsboro, MD

Antietam National Battlefield Public Star Party (Friday) Fri Apr 20, 6:30 PM - 11:00 PM Antietam National Battlefield

Sharpsburg, MD

2018 Central PA Consortium Astronomers Meeting Sat Apr 21, 8:15 AM - 4:15 PM

Dickenson College Carlisle, PA

Nature Fest Sat Apr 21, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Catoctin Creek Park and Nature Center Middletown, MD

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Porch Program At Newcomer House Sat Apr 21, 11:30 AM - 2:00 PM

18422 Shepherdstown Pike Keedysville, MD

Antietam National Battlefield Public Star Party (Saturday) Sat Apr 21, 6:30 PM - 11:00 PM Antietam National Battlefield

Sharpsburg, MD

Big Cork Vineyards Star Party Fri Apr 27, 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

4236 Main St Rohrersville, MD

Cub Scout Pack 97 Star Party - Demo Sat Apr 28, 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Renfrew Institute Waynesboro, PA

March of Dimes March for Babies Sun Apr 29, 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Middletown Park Middletown, MD

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Remfrew Telescope ClinicMarch 10, 2018

The Observer is the monthly newsletter of the Tristate Astronomers, Inc. (TSA), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1985. The purpose of the TSA is to educate the public about the science of astronomy in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The group conducts educational outreach events for the public, as well as a monthly meeting on the 3rd Wednesday of each month from September through May and a variety of informal observing sessions.

TSA Officers

Chairman.................... Vicki George Secretary ....................... Chris Stitley Treasurer ......... Robert Brenneman Outreach .................. Dan Kaminsky Newsletter.......................Mike Sager Webmaster ............... Andy Smetzer

Contact Information Tristate Astronomers, Inc.

823 Commonwealth Avenue Hagerstown, MD 21740

www.tristateastronomers.org

Membership Adults (≥18) ........................... $25 Youth (<18) ............................ $15 2nd Family Member ............... $15 Other Family Members ............ $5 New adult memberships are prorated to $15 between July – December. Cash, check and PayPal accepted.

Contents © Copyright 2018 Tristate Astronomers, Inc. (Unless otherwise noted)

Crash in Progress(The image used for the April OBSERVER Banner)

Arp 256 is a stunning system of two spiral galaxies, about 350 million light-years away, in an early stage of merging. The image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope,

displays two galaxies with strongly distorted shapes and an astonishing number of blue knots of star formation that look like exploding fireworks. The star formation was trig-

gered by the close interaction between the two galaxies.

This image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It is a new version of an image already released in 2008 that was

part a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken for Hubble’s 18th anniversary.

http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1805/

Credit:

ESA/Hubble, NASA