Another month down, and we’re officially into April! With it, we’re welcoming brighter mornings and brighter evenings – thank you, daylight savings! We’re getting closer to retiring the winter coats and swapping hot drinks for iced ones. Spring is here!
Pink Moon
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The ‘Pink Moon’ will be the full moon of April and you will be able to see this on Sunday 12th at 8:22pm. The name ‘Pink Moon’ actually comes from a pink wildflower that grows in spring, not because the moon will actually appear pink, sadly. I would love to live in a world where we have a pink moon!
This year’s Pink Moon will also be known as a micromoon, this means the moon will be at its farthest point from Earth. Therefore the moon will appear smaller and dimmer – opposite to a supermoon.
Lyrids Meteor Shower
The Lyrids Meteor Shower occurs in April every year! The shower happens from the 16th – 25th April, but the peak of the shower happens on 22nd April, where you could potentially see up to 18 per hour. The Lyrid meteor shower is associated with long-period Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. It is the oldest recorded meteor shower still visible today, and was first recorded in 687 BCE.
While the Lyrid meteors will be visible all across the sky, following their path backwards they will appear to originate from the constellation of Lyra, the harp. In reality the meteors have nothing to do with this distant group of stars. The direction they appear to come from is dictated by the motion of the Earth and the debris itself.
Image credit for both: Stellarium/Lovisa Redpath
Constellations
Leo the Lion
Leo the Lion is one of the easiest of the 13 zodiac signs to see. To look for Leo in the sky, face south, look for the sickle (or a backwards question mark). This is the constellations asterism. An asterism is a recognisable pattern of stars in the sky but it is often part of a larger constellation. The brightest star found in Leo is Regulus, which can be found at the bottom of the sickle.
Virgo The Maiden
You can also spot another sign of the zodiac in the sky, the largest zodiac, Virgo the Maiden. It takes the Sun 44 days to pass through Virgo, this is longer than any other Zodiac signs, which is maybe why we have a lot of Virgos in the world! To find Virgo in the sky, best thing to do is to look for the brightest star found within the constellation, Spica.
Image credit for both: Stellarium/Lovisa Redpath
That’s just a taste of what April’s night sky has to offer! Want to discover more? Come along to our 2pm show, ‘Our Night Sky’, running Tuesday to Sunday each week.
(Psst… if you visit during term time Tuesday – Friday, tickets are just £5!)
#April #Night #Sky #Astronotes
