Mahon About Town Nantucket Blog

The Nantucket Sky in April 2008
(All times are given in Eastern Standard Time)

“The Nantucket Sky” is generously provided at the beginning of each month by the Maria Mitchell Observatory, 4 Vestal Street. Thank you to Executive Director Janet E. Schulte for proposing this idea, and to Astronomer Vladimir Strelnitski for the report.

1. The Sun (for the middle of the month, April 15)
Rises at 6:00 a.m.
Sets at 7:21 p.m.

2. The Moon
Full Moon: April 20, 6:25 am
Last Quarter: April 28, 10:12 am

3. Planets
Mercury and Venus: Both are too close to the Sun to be observed comfortably during most of the month.

Mars: An evening object, in the southwestern part of the sky. Three months after the opposition, it is already far from the Earth. Its disk can be seen through a telescope or binoculars, though it appears relatively small with no visible features.
Jupiter: A morning object, higher and higher in the eastern part of the sky before the sunrise.

Saturn: An all-night object (seen closer and closer to Leo’s brightest star Regulus). Come to see this planet with its gorgeous rings and moons through the Maria Mitchell Association’s 8″ Clark telescope, at any scheduled open nigh.

4. Meteor Showers
A relatively weak (about 10 meteors per hour) Lyrids meteor shower on April 22 will be further harmed by the full Moon. If you decide to observe it anyway, the radiant of this shower (the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to originate) is between the constellations of Lyra and Hercules seen high enough in the Eastern sky, in the second half of the night.