The April Full Moon included a total Lunar eclipse! Monday’s eclipse started minutes after midnight and stayed in the total stage for about an hour and fifteen minutes.
This is the Full Pink Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, or Fish Moon. The "Pink" adjective comes from blooming phlox which is uncommon around here, but the tasty pink salmon berry flowers are coming out. I cut my grass last week, and my remaining chicken (five got eaten in a night a month ago) is already brooding a clutch. So much for "free range". Spring is definitely blooming and the earth is warming up, promising a good garden season.
This month is a good one for learning some of the Zodiac signs. If you go out at about 9:00 any evening, the bright planet Jupiter will be in the south west. Jupiter is in the constellation Gemini, and the bright stars Castor and Pollux, the heads of the Gemini Twins, are a little to the left of Jupiter. As you move your eyes to the left, you go past the dim constellation Cancer and then due south is a constellation shaped like a sickle with a bright star at the base of the handle. The bright star is Regulus, and the sickle is the tail and back leg of the constellation Leo. Scan further to the left, to the southeast, and you will see the bright planet, Mars. Mars just happens to be above and to the right of a bright star, Spica. Spica is the lower hand of the reclining constellation, Virgo.
On the night of the Full Moon, the we had lots of cloud cover, but often the moon would show through, and occasionally Mars too. Spica was not bright enough to show around here. My poor photo of the moon going into total eclipse is attached. The red of the eclipsed moon was not bright enough to penetrate our clouds. A photo taken from a place with clear skies can be found here:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140416.html
This photo is rotated about 90 degrees clockwise from what we would have seen if the night had been clear..
All this star and planet information can be found in the Sky and Telescope Interactive Sky Chart,
http://skychart.skyandtelescope.com/skychart.php.
It is worth getting to know that site. Be sure to adjust it for your location: just enter our zip code and USA and it will adjust to our night sky.
Now that the Full Moon has passed, it is a much better time to see the evening stars. Luna rises 55 minutes later every night with moonrise at sunset on the night of the Full Moon. During the week before the Full Moon, (between first quarter and full) the evening sky is always lit by the moon, making it harder to see the stars. As the days pass after the Full Moon, every night has about another hour of darkness, and good sky viewing, before Luna rises. It is good to understand this whether watching the stars or walking in the night by moonlight.
Chuck Nafziger
This is the Full Pink Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, or Fish Moon. The "Pink" adjective comes from blooming phlox which is uncommon around here, but the tasty pink salmon berry flowers are coming out. I cut my grass last week, and my remaining chicken (five got eaten in a night a month ago) is already brooding a clutch. So much for "free range". Spring is definitely blooming and the earth is warming up, promising a good garden season.
This month is a good one for learning some of the Zodiac signs. If you go out at about 9:00 any evening, the bright planet Jupiter will be in the south west. Jupiter is in the constellation Gemini, and the bright stars Castor and Pollux, the heads of the Gemini Twins, are a little to the left of Jupiter. As you move your eyes to the left, you go past the dim constellation Cancer and then due south is a constellation shaped like a sickle with a bright star at the base of the handle. The bright star is Regulus, and the sickle is the tail and back leg of the constellation Leo. Scan further to the left, to the southeast, and you will see the bright planet, Mars. Mars just happens to be above and to the right of a bright star, Spica. Spica is the lower hand of the reclining constellation, Virgo.
On the night of the Full Moon, the we had lots of cloud cover, but often the moon would show through, and occasionally Mars too. Spica was not bright enough to show around here. My poor photo of the moon going into total eclipse is attached. The red of the eclipsed moon was not bright enough to penetrate our clouds. A photo taken from a place with clear skies can be found here:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140416.html
This photo is rotated about 90 degrees clockwise from what we would have seen if the night had been clear..
All this star and planet information can be found in the Sky and Telescope Interactive Sky Chart,
http://skychart.skyandtelescope.com/skychart.php.
It is worth getting to know that site. Be sure to adjust it for your location: just enter our zip code and USA and it will adjust to our night sky.
Now that the Full Moon has passed, it is a much better time to see the evening stars. Luna rises 55 minutes later every night with moonrise at sunset on the night of the Full Moon. During the week before the Full Moon, (between first quarter and full) the evening sky is always lit by the moon, making it harder to see the stars. As the days pass after the Full Moon, every night has about another hour of darkness, and good sky viewing, before Luna rises. It is good to understand this whether watching the stars or walking in the night by moonlight.
Chuck Nafziger
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