The Night Sky in April

Abstract

THE moon is full on April 11 at 21h. and new on April 26 at 13h. U.T. A naked-eye star, o Leonis (mag. 3·8) is occulted on April 7, the disappearance, as seen from Greenwich, taking place at 21h. 43·5m. at position angle 58° from the north point of the moon's image. Jupiter and its companion, Saturn, are planets of the evening sky. Both will soon be too close to the sun for observation, but they will re-emerge as morning stars towards the end of June. Mars continues as a morning star, and is 5° above the eastern horizon about 3h. 30m. U.T. in mid-April. The distant planet, Neptune, is not far from β Virginis and comes to the southern meridian shortly after 22h. U.T. in mid-April (add 1 h. to convert to Summer Time). This planet, seen as a star of magnitude 8, requires for its detection some telescopic aid and a section of a star map for guidance such as is given in the “Handbook of the British Astronomical Association, 1941”, p. 9. In the same constellation is one of the best-known binary stars, γ Virginis. The components are of nearly equal magnitude (3·6 and 3·7 respectively) and their present separation is 5¾″ the period is about 180 years. The Lyrid meteors are most frequent about April 20, their radiant point being near 104 Herculis, that is, south-preceding the bright star, Vega.