Page 14 - April

ISSUE NUMBER 166 THE TOWN CRIER APRIL 2017

Watching the Night Skies
By Edwin Evans, MD

This may be your last chance for a while to enjoy the calm night atmosphere
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before summer begins to settle in. First things first, April 1 is the best night of
the entire year to see Mercury. This little planet, closest to our Sun, will be
highest in the sky it ever gets on this night. About 45 minutes before sunset it is
beautiful in the Western sky. This planet, circling the Sun inside our own orbit, on this night will actually be
quite close to Mars. Don’t miss this! Get your binoculars out and see that they both are discs (stars other
than the Sun, no matter how bright, are always just points of light in binoculars or telescopes). Mercury will
get closer to the Sun every day in early April, finally being completely lost in the glare of the Sun by the
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20 . Mars on the other hand will be rising higher every night; look for it very near the very familiar star clus-
ter known as the Pleiades on the night of April 7.
If you do nothing other than follow the Moon this month, you will see a few very interesting pairings
with bright stars. Early in the month, as the Moon is approaching full, it is visible in the East after Sunset.
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On the night of the 6 , look for it very near a bright star called Regulus in the constellation Leo. This star is
actually four stars, which are two pairs of stars orbiting each other, and the individual pairs also orbit each
other! I have often thought about how amazing it would be to be able to watch over time; one pair takes 40
days to spin around each other, but the two pairs take 600 years to orbit each other! This is one of the clos-
est really bright stars to Earth, being about 79 light years away. In binoculars and most telescopes, it just
appears as a single star- but now you know better.
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Look also at the Moon right after dark on the night of the 10 , and you will find it very close to Jupi-
ter. Jupiter, always worth a look in your binoculars because the four large moons of this planet are so easy
to see, will on this night have all four moons on the right-hand side of the planet. Don’t miss that! It may be
somewhat difficult because the Moon’s light will tend to dominate your seeing, but it’s definitely worth a try.
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Finally, for you morning folks, two things. There is a meteor shower on the 22 , best seen early that
morning. The Moon will not be particularly bright (because it will be a small crescent); try to be out by 5 am
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for the best view. The next morning, the 23 , look at the Moon near Venus in the eastern sky. This will be a
beautiful pairing of the brilliant planet near a small crescent Moon. Nice way to start a day.
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Last thing - remember to put in for the day off Monday August 21 to watch the eclipse! It will be
over the Golden Corner just after 2:30 pm (so maybe you only need the afternoon off work).

I welcome questions, comments at teevans19@bellsouth.net.

HAVE TOWN CRIER
WILLTRAVEL
All the way to the Hanoi Hilton
Hotel is the Town Crier thanks
to Bob Wikman and his wife
Margo. The Wikmans are on
an extended vacation of Viet-
nam to include country side
tours and river cruises. Resi-
dents of Anderson, Bob is an
avid Town Crier reader and we
appreciate their picture.

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