A Difficult Month for Local Stargazers

The last time we had a decent display of meteors was back in December during the Geminids. The skies were exceptionally clear and Moon-free, but it seems we missed the peak of the display by several hours. My hour and a half vigil of scanning the sky was rewarded with only 36 meteors. OF those, there were a few bright ones that made the effort more than worthwhile. Still, the number of meteors was not what we usually expect of this event, the now most reliable meteor shower of the year.

I had hoped we would have another good opportunity to observe the upcoming display of meteors in April, the Lyrids. This brief shower peaks on the night of April 21-22, at 1:00 am EDT (eastern daylight time). Normally this early morning time frame would be ideal for us in New England, but unfortunately the waxing gibbous Moon (full on the 24th) will overshadow all but the brightest members.

This observing scenario is quite disheartening. I look forward to the Lyrids, even despite their meager numbers. Why? Because we've usually been hibernating during the past few months due to the weather. And this year it was so cold and snowy, even I didn't venture out too often.

Even with the bright Moon flooding the sky, I still plan on giving the Lyrids a chance this year. It may only be for an hour or so, but I do love to glimpse even one bright meteor flashing across the sky. If you decide to give the April Lyrids a try as well, the specific characteristics of this meteor shower follow.

As mentioned above, the Lyrids peak on the night of April 21-22. If you, like I, are going to observe for only a short period of time, I would plan my observing session centered around the estimated peak time of 1:00 am. The constellation Lyra, from where the meteors will appear to radiate, will be well up in the eastern sky. The swift and bright Lyrid meteors disintegrate after hitting our atmosphere at a moderate speed of 29.8 miles per second. They often produce luminous trains of dust that can be observed for several seconds.

Normally the peak rate for the Lyrids is 15 to 20 meteors per hour, but the interfering moonlight will reduce that number considerably...at least by half! And, since the Lyrids are a narrow stream of particles, the nights before and after the peak night will fair even worse.

Additionally in April, don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour on Sunday, April 3rd at 2:00 am (or at least before you retire on Saturday night the 2nd), otherwise you'll be an hour late for that first function on Sunday morning.

Also, on April 8, a hybrid solar eclipse (it starts out as an annular, becomes total for 45 seconds, then ends as a annular) will occur over the South Pacific and its path will take it over northern South America. Visit this web site http://www.hermit.org/Eclipse/2005-04-08/ for details. Folks in the southern United States will see varying degrees of a partial solar eclipse, depending upon their proximity to the narrow central eclipse path.

For instance, residents of Key West, Florida will see just about 50% of the Sun's diameter obscured by the Moon. We are too far north here in southern New England to see any percentage of the eclipsed Sun. If you wanted to observe even a small "bite" taken out of the Sun by the Moon, you'd have to travel to a location somewhere between Perth Amboy and Trenton, New Jersey (the northern limit of the partial eclipse that is closest to us).

To detect such a small notch in the Sun's disk you'd also need a properly filtered telescope. It would be better to watch the Evening News and CNN for eclipse reports. They often cover these events. You can also be proactive and search the web for sites that may provide eclipse images after the fact. You might even be lucky to find a site that will provide live coverage, not only of the partial phases seen well south of here, but also of the annular- total-annular phases from somewhere along and within the narrow path.

And finally, you may hear news about an upcoming penumbral lunar eclipse on April 24. The Moon slips only into the Earth's lighter shadow. This phenomenon is not a partial or a total lunar eclipse. Penumbral lunar eclipses are often difficult to detect, even despite the fact that this one is fairly deep. Unfortunately for us, the maximum occurs when the Moon is setting, around 5:47 am EDT. Also, since the Sun rises around 5:49 am on that date, the event will be occurring during bright twilight. The further west one observes this event, the better the opportunity will be to detect the light shading of the lunar surface. Our luck will change eventually!

A note about our Saturday public nights at Seagrave Memorial Observatory in North Scituate. Actually, the lack thereof this winter. I thought the winter of 2003-2004 was bad! Yikes! All the snow made our parking lot impassable this winter. Plus, there weren't too many Saturday nights that were clear anyway! I trust by the time you read this column we will be back to our regular weekly schedule. You can always surf our website (www.theskyscrapers.org) for up-to-date information.

Keep your eyes to the skies