What’s Going on in the Sky This Month:
April 16-25 – Lyrid Meteor Shower. From space.com: “In late April, skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere will get a view of the Lyrid meteor shower, the dusty trail of the [Comet Thatcher] with a centuries-long orbit around the sun. The Lyrid meteors streak across the sky between April 16 and April 25, so skywatchers have a chance to see
them during that window, weather permitting. The best day to see Lyrid meteors will be extremely early in the morning on Sunday, April 22, NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke told
Space.com. As with most meteor showers, the peak viewing time will be
before dawn.” https://bit.ly/2HSo3LQ
April 28 – NASA will launch its GRACEFO (Follow-On) mission to track Earth’s gravity and water movement. It is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as part of the Iridium Next 51-55 commercial satellite launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
April 29 – Full Moon, Pink Moon. According to Farmers Almanac, “this name came from the herb Moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.” https://bit.ly/2G4qIl7
April Star Chart – Ken Graun of whatsouttonight.com puts together beautifully written and well-researched sky charts each month. In them is information about constellations, their
mythology, brightest stars and the constellations they belong to, moon phases, and more. Visit whatsouttonight.com to download and print your own star chart for the month.
There are several SpaceX rockets set to launch this month (April 2, 5, 16, and 30, to be exact). For their launch schedules and others, visit space.com’s excellent calendar: https://bit.ly/2BLAQvT.
Four Free Star Gazing Apps for Android and iOS:
Sky Map (Android) – A classic app that is now open source and apparently maintained independently by a volunteer team of Google engineers. Essentially uses augmented reality
(AR) to turn your phone or device into a mobile planetarium. Calculates your geographical location through your phone’s sensors to display a detailed star map based on where your phone is pointed.
Star Walk 2 (Android, iOS) – An AR star chart from Vito Technology that displays stars and planets above you with the bonus of detailed history and mythology about the constellations, stars, and planets. Some benefits include a Time Machine slider that allows you to see night skies of the past and future, as well as a night mode, so you don’t burn out your night vision while stargazing. The graphics of this app are truly stunning.
NASA (Android, iOS) – This official NASA app keeps you up to date on the latest space missions, allows you to watch video on demand and stream NASA TV from your device, and provides you with a gallery of thousands of NASAs space images.
Night Sky (iOS) – As with Star Walk 2, Night Sky lets you view thousands of stars, satellites, planets and constellations in gorgeous AR, as well as sync to your Apple Watch so that you can view the star map and experience its features from your wrist.