Sky this Week for April 6 to April 12, 2008
The following is a summary of some astronomical objects that may be observed during the week of April 6 to April 12, 2008.
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Mon Apr 7 ISS appears at 9:12 pm Wed Apr 9 ISS apopears at 8:21 pm Thur Apr 10 ISS appears at 8:42 pm Fri Apr 11 ISS appears at 9:03 pm Sat Apr 12 ISS appears at 7:50 pm For times specific to your location see http://www.heavens-above.com
SUN
No active regions are currently visible on the solar disk. Sunday Apr 6 sunrise was 6:38 am and sunset was 7:31 pm MDT Sat Apr 12 sunrise is 6:29 am and sunset is at 7:37 pm MDT
MOON
The following is a list of Astroleague Lunar 1 Club objects that may be viewed on days indicated: Tue Apr 8 Lunation 3: Endymion, Cleomedes, Mare Crisium, Picard, Vendelinus, Petavius, Petavius Wall, Furnerius Wed Apr 9 Lunation 4: Atlas, Macrobius, Proclus, Palus Somni, Messier, Messier A, Fabricius Thur Apr 10 lunation 5: Lacus Mortis, Posidonius, Mare Tranquillitatis, Theophilus, Mare Nectaris, Fracastorius, Piccolomini Fri Apr 11 lunation 6: Aristoteles, Eudoxus, Mitchel, Mare Serenitatis, Plinius, Cyrillus, Catharina, Gemma Frisius, Maurolycus Sat Apr 12 lunation 7: First quarter moon is at 12:32 pm MDT. Cassini, Cassini A, Aristillus, Mons Piton, Montes Alpes, Vallis Alpes, Autolycus, Palus Putredinis, Mons Hadley, Manilius, Mare Vaporum, Hipparchus, Albategnius
PLANETS
Mars is in constellation Gemini. It magnitude +1 in brightness and the disk is 6.5 arc sec across. Just after 1 am MDT Saturday morning, the moon passes about 12 arc minutes north of Mars. Saturn is in constellation Leo. It +0.85 magnitude in brightness and 19.3 arc sec across Jupiter is in constellation Sagittarius. It is magnitude -2.1 in brightness and the disk is 39 arc sec across Jupiters Great Red Spot (GRS) crosses the center at the following times this week: Tue Apr 8 at 06:00 am Wed Apr 9 at 01:52 am Fri Apr 11 at 03:30 am The GRS is visible in a telescope for about an hour before and after the central meridian crossing.
ASTEROIDS
The following asteroids are magnitude 10 or brighter: 5 Astraea is in constellation Virgo and 9.6 magnitude in brightness 7 Iris is in constellation Virgo and 9.4 magnitude in brightness 41 Daphne is in constellation Virgo and 9.3 magnitude in brightness
COMETS
The following comets are magnitude 12 or brighter: 17P Holmes in constellation Auriga it is magnitude 5.7 in brightness and the coma is 70 arc min across 46P Wirtanen is in constellation Gemini it is magnitude 11.5 in birghtness and coma is 3.9 arc-min across C/2006 Q1 McNaught is in constellation Antlia. It is magnitude 11.1 in brightness and the coma is 1 arc min across C/2007 W1 Boattini is in constellation Crater. It is magnitude 8.8 in brightness and the coma is 8.2 arc min across C/2008 C1 Chen-Gao is in constellation Taurus. It is magnitude 10.2 in brightness and the coma is 3.2 arc min across. See http://cometchasing.skyhound.com for charts and more information
DARK SKY OBJECTS
The moon interferes with our deep sky views by the weekend.