LISTEN to this week’s Sky Report
This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report through April 2nd, 2020. Here’s what’s happening in the skies of southern California.
The brightest planet, Venus, continues to command attention after sunset, when it blazes high in the western sky. Venus can be seen until it sets in the west-northwest at about 11 p.m. It is located below the Pleiades star cluster in the constellation Taurus the Bull, and it appears closer to the cluster night by night. Venus will cross the edge of the Pleiades on April 3rd.
The waxing moon displays a crescent phase on the nights before it reaches first quarter, which it does shortly after it sets as seen from southern California on March 31st. After that, it is waxing gibbous. Between March 26th and April 2nd, the time of moonset changes from 9:26 p.m. to 3:05 a.m.
On the 28th, the crescent moon will be beautifully positioned near Venus, the Pleiades, and the bright star Aldebaran, also in Taurus. Conditions for seeing this should be best starting at 8:30 p.m., as night falls.
Speaking of Aldebaran, Orion’s orange star, Betelgeuse—that got a lot of attention for fading during the winter—is now recovering in brightness. It now appears about the same brightness as Aldebaran, or more than twice as bright as Betelgeuse was at its faintest. Betelgeuse is the upper left corner of the tall rectangle of four bright stars that enclose the Belt of Orion. An imaginary line extending to the right through the three Belt stars points toward Aldebaran.
Another beautiful grouping, made of the outer planets, awaits you above the southeast horizon at about 6:00 a.m. Jupiter will catch your attention as the brightest object in that part of the sky. Two other bright objects appear to the lower left of Jupiter, and together they form a flat triangle, with orange Mars between Jupiter and golden Saturn.
The relative orbital motions of the planets are especially apparent with Mars, which will appear below Saturn on the 28th, before it slides farther to the left of Saturn on following mornings.
Use a telescope to observe Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s four large moons that constantly change their arrangement around Jupiter as they orbit the planet. Mars is still too far away for any but very large telescopes to be able to reveal any of its details, but it is approaching and it will appear much larger through telescopes in the autumn.
In the best interest of our visitors, and to do its duty to help limit the possible spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, Griffith Observatory is closed until further notice. As a consequence, all public telescopes are closed, and the March 28th public star party has been cancelled. Please check the Griffith Observatory homepage for current information.
Follow The Sky Report, All Space Considered, and Griffith Observatory on Twitter for updates on astronomy and space-related events.
From Griffith Observatory, I’m Anthony Cook, and I can be reached at griffithobserver@gmail.com.