News from your Planetarium

By Pam Eastlick

Greetings All!

Well, it’s April when we have the best stargazing skies in the world here on Guam. In April and May, you can see eight of the ten brightest stars,

15 of the 20 brightest stars, the largest and smallest constellations AND the three most famous constellations ALL AT THE SAME TIME. And this year three of the planets will join the Magic Half Hour!

This month’s public Planetarium show ‘The Magic Half Hour’ will tell you all about it so keep reading. And I’ve also got news about a really nice conjunction coming up this weekend. April is always a spectacular month for stargazing. So get out there and look up!!

Pam

1. Full Moon conjunction

2. April public Planetariums shows

1. Moon and planet conjunction 7 April 2012 You can see Venus and Jupiter in the western sky after sunset for the rest of the month and Mars is that red ‘star’ high above the eastern horizon but a fourth visible planet will enter our early evening sky this weekend and it will do so in a rather spectacular fashion.

Full Moon is this Saturday 7 April and when it rises it will be keeping company with two bright stars. The one very close and above it is Spica, the 15th brightest star, but the one only two finger-widths to the left is NOT a star. That’s Saturn, making its debut as our fourth evening planet.

And if that’s not enough of a spectacle for you, go outside a few minutes before 7:20 p.m. and find Canopus the second brightest star above the southern horizon. At 7:20 p.m. a bright moving star will appear below it.

That’s not a star: it’s the International Space Station.

The ISS will track across the southeastern sky and at 7:24 p.m. it will be directly above the Moon, Saturn and Spica. They will be quite close to the horizon at that time, but as a general rule, the full Moon is hard to miss and you shouldn’t have any trouble finding all of them. It just could be quite a show! Enjoy!

2. April Public Planetarium shows

12, 13 and 14 April

The Magic Half Hour

6:30 p.m.

Quality Time with the Star Lady

7:00 p.m.

In Guam in April and May there’s a half hour when you can see eight of the brightest stars. I call it the Magic Half Hour and this week it occurs fairly late at night so I’ve got a deal for you! Come to April’s public shows and you’ll learn exactly how to find all this astounding wonder and when the Magic Half Hour occurs in your personal sky. We’ll show you the bright stars, the famous constellations and other stellar wonders.

At 7:00 p.m., it’s Quality Time with the Star Lady when she answers your space-related questions. But what we’re really doing is stalling for time until it gets dark enough that we can go out and look what I call The Big Planetarium. How many of the real stars, constellations and planets will we see? Mark April’s public Planetarium shows on your calendar today!