{"id":3126,"date":"2024-03-18T01:11:55","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T01:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3126"},"modified":"2024-03-18T01:15:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T01:15:51","slug":"astrocal-april-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3126","title":{"rendered":"AstroCal – April 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mark your calendars for April 8, 2024 around 3:00 p.m. EDT.\u00a0 There will be a <\/span>Total Solar Eclipse<\/b> crossing the United States.\u00a0 The path of <\/span>totality<\/b> (the area where the entire disk of the <\/span>Sun <\/b>is obscured by the <\/span>Moon)<\/b> will stretch from central Texas to the Michigan\/Ohio border and on to Maine.\u00a0 The rest of the contiguous USA (sorry Alaska and Hawaii) will see varying degrees of a partial eclipse, the percentage of which will be determined by one\u2019s distance from the path of totality.\u00a0 Coverage for the Lake Superior shoreline starting in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan will be around 85 percent at Sault Ste. Marie, 75 percent near Ontonagon, and 70 percent at Duluth, Minnesota.<\/span> CAUTION<\/b> – NEVER look at the Sun without an APPROVED set of eclipse glasses or telescope filters!\u00a0 Permanent damage can be done to your eyes and if harmed, the retina of the eye does not heal like a normal cut or scrap of the skin.!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The next total solar eclipse for the United States won\u2019t happen until 2033 when totality will touch parts of northwest Alaska.\u00a0 Montana and North Dakota will get their chance in 2044.\u00a0 A larger chunk of the USA will see another total eclipse in 2045.\u00a0 Odds are you won\u2019t be marking these dates in your calendar quite yet.\u00a0 This Great American Eclipse will take place 146 years after the 1878 GAE that crossed the western states.\u00a0 The 1878 GAE was largely credited with\u00a0 kickstarting American scientific study and invention into high gear.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The eclipse will take place during the <\/span>New Moon <\/b>of the new cycle.\u00a0 The <\/span>Last Quarter Moon\u00a0 <\/b>of the previous phase cycle will take place on April 1 (no fooling).\u00a0 The <\/span>First Quarter Moon <\/b>of<\/span><\/p>\n

the new cycle falls on April 15 followed by the <\/span>Full Moon <\/b>on April 23.\u00a0 April 19 will find the Moon at apogee when it will be 252,042 miles from the <\/span>Earth.\u00a0 <\/b>This year\u2019s celebration of <\/span>Earth Day <\/b>will take place on April 22, the day before the Full Moon.\u00a0 Look for the first views of the <\/span>Young Crescent Moon <\/b>low in the WNW sky forty minutes before sunset April 9-11.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Mars <\/b>and <\/span>Saturn <\/b>will be prominent in the hour before sunrise all month.\u00a0 Look near the horizon between E and ESE in the constellation of <\/span>Aquarius, the Water Bearer.<\/b>\u00a0 Binoculars may be helpful in spotting them as they are both shining at Mag +1.0.\u00a0 Mars will pass 0.5 degrees north of Saturn on April 10 making the pair a little easier to locate.\u00a0 Saturn will climb higher above the horizon faster than Mars, but not by much.\u00a0 By the end of April, <\/span>the Ringed Planet<\/b> will rise two hours before sunrise and <\/span>the Red Planet<\/b> will follow an hour later.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Evening planets this month will be clustered in the western sky.\u00a0 <\/span>Jupiter <\/b>will be the most conspicuous shining at mag -2.0 and will set three hours after sunset early in the month and one hour after sunset by month\u2019s end.\u00a0 <\/span>Uranus <\/b>will be a much dimmer mag +5.6 and it will pass just 0.5 degres south of Jupiter on April 20.\u00a0 It will still be possible to find <\/span>Mercury <\/b>close to the horizon but it will completely disappear from view a few days after the beginning of April.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our historical event for this AstroCal goes back to 1659-1665 as Christian Huygens was making observations of Saturn. \u00a0 Huygens realized the \u2018appendages\u2019 of Saturn he saw on either side of Saturn (sometimes referred to as \u2018ears\u2019) were actually rings.\u00a0 Huygens watched them disappear in 1665 and then reappear several years later.\u00a0 He realized he was seeing the edges of \u00a0 flat rings disappear from view when observed straight on.\u00a0 The rings only reappeared when the planet\u2019s tilt brought them into view at a more oblique angle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Compiled by Ken Raisanen of WOAS-FM – information provided by <\/span>Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar<\/span><\/i>, Michigan State University.\u00a0 More information and subscription information can be found on their website at <\/span>http:\/\/abramsplanetarium.org\/<\/span><\/a>skycalendar\/ or on X (formerly Twitter) at <\/span>http:\/\/twitter.com\/AbramsSkyNotes<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Yearly subscriptions cost $12 and can be started anytime.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Top Piece video – Iron Maiden perform TOTAL ECLIPSE live in 1982<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mark your calendars for April 8, 2024 around 3:00 p.m. EDT.\u00a0 There will be a Total Solar Eclipse crossing the United States.\u00a0 The path of totality (the area where the entire disk of the Sun is obscured by the Moon) will stretch from central Texas to the Michigan\/Ohio border and on to Maine.\u00a0 The rest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3126"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3130,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126\/revisions\/3130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}