BORDER ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
MONTHLY NOTES
April 2013/ May 2013
|
April |
May |
|
Sunday April 14th.
Jupiter is 2° north of the Moon at 6pm. |
Thursday May 2nd.
Moon is at last quarter at 11am. |
|
Monday April 15th.
Moon is at apogee (404,865km) at 10pm. |
Saturday May 4th.
Neptune is 6° south of the Moon at 7am. |
|
Thursday April 18th.
Mars is in conjunction with the Sun at 12am. Moon is at first quarter at 1pm. |
Sunday May 5th.
Eta Aquarids meteor shower maximum. |
|
Friday April 19th.
Mercury is 2°south of Uranus at 9pm. |
Monday May 6th. Eta Aquarids meteor shower maximum. |
|
Monday April 22nd.
Lyrids meteor shower maximum at 11am. |
Tuesday May 7th.
Uranus is 4° south of the Moon at 12am. |
|
Thursday April 25th.
Spica is 0.004° south of the Moon at 12am. ( occultation in Central and South America and South Africa). Full Moon at 8pm. (partial lunar eclipse at moonrise from the UK) |
Friday May 10th.
New moon at 12am. (annular solar eclipse north east Australia and pacific Ocean.) Pallas in conjunction with the Sun. |
|
Friday April 26th.
Saturn is 4° north of the Moon at 2am. |
SUMMER MEETINGS |
|
Saturday April 27th.
Moon is at perigee. (362,365km) at 8pm. |
There will be no
more formal meetings until September 12th. However informal meetings will
continue through the summer to allow work to be done on the telescope
and observatory as necessary.
|
|
Sunday April 28th.
Saturn is at opposition at 8am. |
Note: We are always on the lookout for ideas for meetings or someone to give us a talk. So if you can help us out with an idea or with a talk please let us know. We would be very grateful. |
|
Monday April 29th.
Earliest launch date for NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, IRIS. |
Visibility of the Planets
Mercury is not visible from the UK this month.
Venus passed through superior conjunction on March 28th and is not observable during April.
Mars is in conjunction with the Sun on 17/18 April and is therefore too close to the Sun to be observable this month.
Jupiter is in the evening south-western sky but setting before midnight by the end of the month. The planet is moving direct in Taurus and its brightness decreases from magnitude -2.1 to -2.0 during April. The Moon will be nearby on the evening of 14th April.
Saturn at magnitude +0.3 is at opposition in Libra on 28th April, brightening slightly from magnitude +0.2 to +0.1 during the month. The full Moon lies a few degrees to the south of Saturn on 25/26 April.