2020 Guide to the Night Sky: A month-by-month guide to exploring the skies above Britain and Ireland by Storm Dunlop & Wil Tirion & Royal Observatory Greenwich

Author:Storm Dunlop & Wil Tirion & Royal Observatory Greenwich [Dunlop, Storm & Tirion, Wil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

April – Looking North

April – Looking North

April 01

00:00 BST (GMT + 1hr)

April 15

23:00 BST (GMT + 1hr)

May 01

22:00 BST (GMT + 1hr)

Cygnus and the brighter regions of the Milky Way are now becoming visible, running more-or-less parallel with the horizon in the early part of the night. Rising in the northeast is the small constellation of Lyra and the distinctive ‘Keystone’ of Hercules above it. This asterism is very useful for locating the bright globular cluster M13 (see map here), which lies on one side of the quadrilateral. The winding constellation of Draco weaves its way from the quadrilateral of stars that marks its ‘head’, on the border with Hercules, to end at λ Draconis between Polaris (α Ursae Minoris) and the ‘Pointers’, Dubhe and Merak (α and β Ursae Majoris, respectively). Ursa Major is ‘upside down’ high overhead, near the zenith. The constellation of Gemini stands almost vertically in the west. Auriga is still clearly seen in the northwest, but, by the end of the month, the southern portion of Perseus is starting to dip below the northern horizon. The very faint constellation of Camelopardalis lies in the northwest between Polaris and the constellations of Auriga and Perseus.

Meteors

A moderate meteor shower, the Lyrids, peaks on April 21–22. Although the hourly rate is not very high (about 18 meteors per hour), the meteors are fast and some leave persistent trains. This year the maximum occurs shortly before New Moon, so conditions are extremely favourable for seeing the fainter meteors. The parent object is the non-periodic comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher). Another, stronger shower, the Eta Aquariids, begins to be active around April 18, and comes to maximum in May.

In April the constellation of Boötes lies halfway between the eastern horizon and the zenith. The brightest star in the photograph is orange-tinted Arcturus. The small constellation of Corona Borealis appears in the upper left-hand corner of the image.

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