Jared May, What's up, The Third Week of April 2021

This week of April we see partially cloudy skies both day and night. Nighttime temperatures do drop into the lower 30’s despite the warmer daytime temperatures we have recently been experiencing. Sunset this week is around 8:10 PM and continues to push later into the night as the season moves forward. Through the cloud patches at night be on the lookout for the moon passing through Taurus and Messier object 35, overhead satellites, as well as some late-night meteors.

This week is also the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight – the first in history.

On Wednesday the 14th shortly after sunset, look low in the western skies to spy the moon passing by the Pleiades – a bright and beautiful open cluster easily seen with binoculars. On Thursday the moon will be passing through the heart of the constellation Taurus. You may notice a bright red colored star nearby; this is the star Aldebaran. Between Friday and Saturday, the moon will proceed to pass by Mars which is found hanging 20° above Taurus. On Saturday the moon will be almost perfectly blocking the open cluster known as Messier Object 35 (M35) which normally shines at magnitude 5.1 (good for binoculars).

The moon on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings.

On clear nights I like to sit outside in a reclining lawn chair and just stair upwards into the darkness of the sky. As my eyes adjust to the darkness, they see more and more stars. Maybe once every few minutes I will spot a faint star that is slowly drifting across the sky. This is no star, just a satellite. On a typical night of stargazing for an hour or so I can count between six and twelve satellites that pass overhead. I challenge you to find more than twelve in an hour (hint: if you go to a dark-sky park like JGAP you may easily beat this number).

Friday marks the start of the Lyrids meteor shower. It doesn’t peak until April 22, but you may see some extra shooting stars in the coming days and weeks. At the peak, this meteor shower will produce around 15 meteors per hour. These shooting stars will appear to originate from near the constellation of Lyra, which is home to the third brightest star in the night sky – Vega, which rises in the NE around 10 PM.

The radiant of the Lyrid Meteor shower, which will be picking up over the next week or so. The radiant is the spot in the sky from which meteors appear to emanate.

In 1961 Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union commanded the Vostok 1 spacecraft and orbited the earth for 108 minutes before landing, completing the first ever human spaceflight. April 12 2021 marks the 60th anniversary of his flight. The story of the spacecrafts, cosmonauts, and the secrecy surrounding the Soviet space program are all extremely interesting, but Gagarin’s landing is particularly unique. Gagarin ejected from the space capsule at 23,000ft in the air and parachuted to the ground. His landing site was nearly 200 miles away from the planned landing site due to some engine misbehavior. After he touched down in a potato field, he was greeted by a farm woman and her daughter who were terrified by this man in an orange spacesuit who just plummeted from the sky. He spoke enough Russian to convince them he was friendly. Gagarin was then transported to the nearest phone so he could contact his base to tell them where he had landed. He was reunited with Soviet officials and took “selfies” with some of them and their kids. That is the interesting story of the first return of a human-piloted spacecraft – 60 years later spacecraft landings are done a little differently. ( https://www.nasa.gov/feature/remembering-yuri-gagarin-50-years-later)

Yuri Gargaran, the first human to orbit the Earth.

While the skies are partially cloudy and the nighttime temperatures are frigid this week, some nights may provide all right opportunities for stargazing. Take a step outside around 9:00 PM and try to spot the moon drifting by various asterisms and Messier objects, some shooting stars out of the Lyra constellation, and satellites passing overhead.

Clear Skies!