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April Astronomy Events: From A Total Lunar Eclipse To Mars Opposition And 'Zero Gravity Day' [VIDEO]

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The first astronomy event of April will be the Mars opposition on April 8. Mars will be directly opposite of the sun, with Earth in the middle, but the Red Planet will not be at its closest point to Earth on that day. Mars' closest approach to Earth will be on April 14, due to Mars' orbit, reports Space.com. The last Mars opposition occurred on March 3, 2012.

Some people may be talking about a planetary alignment that will occur on April leading to what is being called "Zero Gravity Day."An article from News-hound.org states that on Friday, due to Pluto lining up with Jupiter and the Earth, will create a strong enough counter-force to Earth's gravity. The reduction of gravity will let people float for a few seconds at the precise time of alignment, 9:47 a.m., according to the article.

"Zero G Day" and #ZeroGDay quickly populated social media when the article was first published. Slate quickly debunked the story, noting the lack of planetary alignment on Friday as well as the lack of gravitational pull that could be caused by the distant planet.Not only is "Zero G Day" a hoax it was a fake news story only a few months ago. The first News-hound.org report happened in January, notes Slate.

While the Mars opposition may not be a great viewing event, the total lunar eclipse on April 15 will be the best astronomy event in April. According to EarthSky, the total lunar eclipse, also known as a red moon, on April 15 will be the first of three total eclipses that will occur in 2014. The next total lunar eclipse will occur on Sept. 28 and the final eclipse will take place on Oct. 8. The lunar eclipse will be easily visible throughout North America.

April's full moon also occurs on the 15th. The full moon is traditionally known as the Pink Moon. According to the Farmers' Almanac, April's full moon gets its name from one of the earliest blooming flowers of spring, phlox subulata also known as moss pink.

The last astronomy event of April may be the most spectacular. The second meteor shower of 2014, the Lyrids, occur between April 16 and 25, with its peak on April 22, notes EarthSky. Skygazers can expect 10 to 20 meteors per hour during the peak of the Lyrids.

A video discussing the total lunar eclipse, the Lyrids and Mars opposition, courtesy of NASA, can be viewed below.

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April Astronomy Events: From A Total Lunar Eclipse To Mars Opposition And 'Zero Gravity Day' [VIDEO]

Astronomy April Fools

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Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) likes to make little jokes on April 1, usually re-captioning existing images. For example, on April 1, 2003 it reported that a new constellation was surprising star gazers. The constellation of Ollie the Owl has suddenly started dominating the southern hemisphere. The picture showed a bird perching on the Tololo All Sky Camera, and APOD admitted that it would have been funnier if the bird hadn't scratched the plastic dome.

However on March 31, 2005, APOD showed the next day's picture as water on Mars . . . which did leave people wondering. This was before orbiters and rovers had gathered considerable evidence of water on the red planet. The April 1 picture was of a glass of water on top of a Mars bar.

Mercury's moon On March 31, 2012 NASA provided the discovery image of a moon for Mercury, as captured by the MESSENGER spacecraft. Even on the eve of April 1, this was credible after all, spacecraft often discover moons. But like many good April Fools, there are clues.

Firstly, the enlarged picture of the moon is immediately recognized by many astronomy buffs. It's a well-known image of asteroid 243 Ida, taken by the Galileo spacecraft on its way to Jupiter.

Secondly, they outlined the plan to collide MESSENGER with the moon to knock it free of Mercury's gravity and set it on an Earth-crossing trajectory suitable for recovery as a Mercury meteorite. In fact, they'd do this with such precision that the moon would arrive at a remote location in Antarctica, avoiding population centers. Whew! Pretty impressive planning for something that had only been discovered the day before!

And finally, there's a mission proposal in the planning stage for X-ray analysis of Mercury's surface. It's name: Hermean On-surface Analysis with X-rays. (What's its acronym?)

Astronauts April Fool in space, 2010. The three-man crew of the International Space Station got a laugh out of Mission Control with a doctored photo of themselves spacewalking - not wearing space suits, but slacks, T-shirts and sunglasses. (Hope they remembered their sunblock!)

On April 1, 2013 Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield tweeted a picture of himself with two space grenades, which were actually air sampling devices. And during the day he tweeted a series of images of an unidentified object nearing the Space Station. I imagine his followers had worked out the April Fool long before the final picture of him with a little green alien. "I don't know what it is or what it wants, but it keeps repeating 'Sloof Lirpa' over and over. Alert the press." (The alien message isn't so strange if you read it backwards.)

The Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect The online Museum of Hoaxes lists Patrick Moore's April Fool as one of the 100 Best Hoaxes. The popular British astronomer, with the help of BBC radio, explained the Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect to listeners on April 1, 1976. He said that at 9:47 a.m., a rare conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto would partially negate Earth's gravity and that if you jumped at that time, you would get a floating feeling.

A number of people later phoned the BBC to describe their experiences of floating. I don't know if they were serious or were joining in on the joke.

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Astronomy April Fools

Charlie Elliot chapter to host observing Saturn program

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Dr. Julius Benton, Jr. will give a presentation at the Charlie Elliot chapter of the Atlanta Astronomy Club on April 5.

MANSFIELD The Charlie Elliott chapter of the Atlanta Astronomy Club plans to give beginner astronomers some tips to better observe the large ringed planet of Saturn.

Author and Saturn observing expert Dr. Julius L. Benton Jr. will give a presentation at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, April 5, to explain how beginner and amateur astronomers with basic equipment can see the rings and satellites of Saturn from their own backyard.

Benton said he will first discuss his involvement with the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers and the programs it offers.

ALPO is an international organization devoted to study the sun, moon, planets, asteroids, meteors and comets. Its purpose is to stimulate, coordinate, and generally promote the study of these bodies using methods and instruments that are available within the communities of both amateur and professional astronomers, according to its website, http://www.alpo-astronomy.org.

The Charlie Elliott chapter meeting is free and open to the public. Bentons visual aids will show the hows and whys of observing.

There are plenty of programs that people can participate in in order to learn how to observe and understand, Benton said. I think one of the things people will walk away with is that a large telescope isnt needed to observe and theres a lot of programs available that can be enlightening. Not all the observing is done by NASA. We can all contribute in learning more about the planets.

After Bentons discussion, there will be a short presentation of what to expect to see in sky with binoculars and small telescopes during the month of April. The meeting will end with a chance to observe Saturn with participants own telescopes or those supplied by astronomy club members.

A Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS), Benton has authored many articles on planetary observing. His book, Saturn and How to Observe It, provides the latest information about the planet, and amateur and professional Saturn images, followed by advice on how to best observe Saturn using a variety of telescope apertures, color filters and magnifications.

Benton is coordinator of the Venus and Saturn observing sections for the ALPO, a worldwide organization of professional astronomers and serious students of solar system astronomy.

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Charlie Elliot chapter to host observing Saturn program

Adventures in (Radio) Amateur Astronomy

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The 4.6 meter smiley dish at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, soon to be available for student use via the internet. the dish was formerly used by the military, and the face was used to taunt any spy satellites passing overhead! (Credit: SETI League photo used by permission under SETIs fair use policy).

Is there truly anything new under the Sun? Well, when it comes to amateur astronomy, many observers are branching out beyond the optical. And while its true that you cant carry out infrared or X-ray astronomy from your backyard or at least, not until amateurs begin launching their own space telescopes you can join in the exciting world of amateur radio astronomy.

Well admit right out the gate that were a relative neophyte when it comes to the realm of radio astronomy. Weve done radio observations of meteor showers in tandem with optical observations and have delved into the trove of information on constructing radio telescopes over the years. Consider this post a primer of sorts, an intro into the world of radio amateur astronomy. If theres enough interest, well follow up with a multi-part saga, constructing and utilizing our own ad-hoc redneck array in our very own backyard with which to alarm the neighbors and probe the radio cosmos.

The Itty-Bitty Array- Re-purposing a TV Dish for amateur astronomy. Credit: NSF/NRAO/Assoc. Universities, Inc.

And much like our exploits in planetary webcam imaging, weve discovered that you may have gear kicking around in the form of an old TV dish remember satellite TV? in your very own backyard. A simple radio telescope setup need not consist of anything more sophisticated than a dish (receiver), a signal strength detector (often standard for pointing a dish at a satellite during traditional installation) and a recorder. As you get into radio astronomy, youll want to include such essentials as mixers, oscillators, and amplifiers to boost your signal.

Frequency is the name of the game in amateur radio astronomy, and most scopes are geared towards the 18 megahertz to 10,000 megahertz range. A program known as Radio-SkyPipe makes a good graphic interface to turn your laptop into a recorder.

Radio astronomy was born in 1931, when Karl Jansky began researching the source of a faint background radio hiss with his dipole array while working for Bell Telephone. Jansky noticed the signal strength corresponded to the passage of the sidereal day, and correctly deduced that it was coming from the core of our Milky Way galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius. Just over a decade later, Australian radio astronomer Ruby Payne-Scott pioneered solar radio astronomy at the end of World War II, making the first ever observations of Type I and III solar bursts as well as conducting the first radio interferometry observation.

A replica of Janskys first steerable antenna at Green Bank, West Virginia. (Public Domain image)

What possible targets exist for the radio amateur astronomer? Well, just like those astronomers of yore, youll be able to detect the Sun, the Milky Way Galaxy, Geostationary and geosynchronous communication satellites and more. The simple dish system described above can also detect temperature changes on the surface of the Moon as it passes through its phases. Jupiter is also a fairly bright radio target for amateurs as well.

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Adventures in (Radio) Amateur Astronomy

Astronomy club to host Jupiter viewing

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Published Mar 28, 2014 at 4:23 pm (Updated Mar 28, 2014)

VERNON The Skylands Astronomy Club will host a special observing event at the Wallkill Wildlife Refuge Headquarters on Friday.

This event kicks off with Jupiter observing. The public will be treated to views of Jupiter and its moons. Telescopes also will be trained on star clusters, double stars and nebulae.

While Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, it is so far away that it appears just like any other bright star. However, even the smallest telescope shows a wealth of detail. The observer will see the four largest, or Galilean, moons. Also visible will be the cloud belts and the Great Red Spot, which is a hurricane that has been raging on the planet for at least 300 years.

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Early spring is also a great time for observing the Orion Nebula. This cloudy complex is located under the belt of the constellation Orion. It is a place of star formation and its milky appearance is visible in even the smallest telescopes. At the center of the nebula, four newborn stars, called the Trapezium, are clearly seen.

The waxing Moon will be in the western sky for this event. Telescopes will show craters, ridges and mountains on the lunar surface. The thin crescent of the moon affords the observer the chance to see the shadows cast by the sun and the night/day terminator.

This event is open to the public and all ages are welcome. The skywatch begins at sunset on Friday and will be held in the lower parking lot of the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge headquarters on Route 565 in Vernon.

Arrive early and dress warmly. Visit http://www.skylandsastronomy.com.

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Astronomy club to host Jupiter viewing

Big Data Summit 2014: Astronomy pushing big data in "mind-blowing" ways

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Advanced areas of science such as astronomy are pushing the boundaries of big data in mind-blowing ways, thanks to the scale of the data being collected by astronomers and cosmologists.

That's what Robert Bath, vice president of engineering Europe for data centre solutions provider Digital Realty, told the audience at Computing's Big Data Summit 2014, as part of his talk on big data storage architecture.

"Astronomy is a very interesting area that's pushing the big data issue in a way that's quite mind-blowing," he said.

"A good example of that is the SKA telescope [the Square Kilometre Array] which is effectively a square kilometre radio telescope which is being deployed in Australia and South Africa," Bath told the audience, explaining how the amount of information which needs to be processed and collected is colossal compared with the vast majority of other big data projects.

"It effectively creates circa one exabyte of data per day and the challenge is how that's addressed in terms of the distributed dishes and the arrays. All of that is a uni-directional dataflow which travels back to supercomputer centres. Then it's about how it's distributed to a global network which is a very interesting part of the space."

Bath went on to describe the Square Kiometre Array as "a truly incredible proposition", adding "they're anticipating that the central computers - which will be situated in Cape Town and Perth - will effectively have the processing power of one hundred million PCs".

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Big Data Summit 2014: Astronomy pushing big data in "mind-blowing" ways

Star-gazing party in store

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MYTCHALL BRANSGROVE/Fairfax NZ

GREAT BALL OF FIRE: The sun seen through the naked eye is bright and yellow, but with the aid of a high-powered telescope and a special hydrogen alpha filter it turns red. Here Heather McTague demonstrates the correct way to use the telescope to view the sun.

Seeing a star 4.3 light years ago is almost like looking in the past, and astronomy fans can do that and more this April.

And you do not have to wait till after dark to appreciate astronomy.

Astronomy, a study of celestial objects, can now take place in the afternoon, and with April being global astronomy month, astronomy aficionados can get their fill in South Canterbury.

Global Astronomy Month (GAM), organised each April by Astronomers Without Borders, is the world's largest global celebration of astronomy.

GAM 2014 will bring new ideas and new opportunities, bringing enthusiasts together worldwide to celebrate Astronomers Without Borders' motto "One People, One Sky".

South Canterbury Astronomers Group will conduct two astronomy events in Timaru as part of Global Astronomy Month 2014.

On April 5, Astronomers Without Borders' New Zealand co-ordinator, Richard McTague, will use special telescopes to observe the sun from 11am at the Mitre 10 carpark in Bank St, Timaru.

With the aid of a coronado, solar max 11 - a specialised telescope for viewing the sun - people can view the burning ball of fire in all its glory, said Mr McTague.

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Star-gazing party in store

RVCC astronomy educator chosen for NASA research flight

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Theresa Moody from the New Jersey Astronomy Center (NJACE) at Raritan Valley Community College has been selected for a special NASA program for educators. The Astronomy Educator/Program Manager will participate in NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), which will become a flying classroom for educators in the next few months.

As a SOFIA Airborne Astronomy Ambassador, the High Bridge resident will join one of 12 two-person teams representing educators from 10 states. Each will be paired with a professional astronomer to observe first-hand how airborne infrared astronomy is conducted. After their flight opportunities, Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors will take what they learn back to their classrooms and into their communities to promote science literacy.

SOFIA is a highly modified Boeing 747SP jetliner fitted with a 100-inch (2.5-meter) effective diameter telescope. The aircraft flies at altitudes between 39,000 and 45,000 feet (12-14 kilometers), above the water vapor in the Earths atmosphere, and collects data in the infrared spectrum.

Moody and her teacher partner, Margaret Holzer of Chatham High School, will participate in the SOFIA flight during the week of May 10-17. Holzer and Moody will co-design a variety of investigations on Light and the Electromagnetic Spectrum. These investigations will be designed to integrate the new Science and Engineering Practices as described in Next Generation Science Standards and will draw on existing NASA resources and investigations. Once designed, Holzer will implement these new investigations into her high school classroom and Moody will include them in workshops offered at NJACE's Science Education Institute.

SOFIA offers educator teams unprecedented access to infrared astronomers and the unique capabilities of an airborne observatory, said John Gagosian, SOFIA program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Previous Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors teams have witnessed SOFIA's world-class astronomical science and have used this experience in hundreds of science, technology, engineering and math teaching opportunities throughout the United States.

Educators are selected through a rigorous peer-reviewed process for this yearly professional development opportunity, said astronomer Dana Backman, manager of SOFIA's education and public outreach programs at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. To date, the Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program has flown 15 teams totaling 31 educators from 17 states, and we look forward to working with this new cadre of educators as they take NASA science into their communities.

As the program manager of the NJACE Science Education Institute, Theresa Moody has been designing and co-facilitating teacher professional development workshops at RVCC since 2006. She also has more than seven years of experience teaching physical science and astronomy at an inner-city high school in Bridgeport, Conn. She has facilitated trainings both nationally and internationally, including the Queen Rania Teaching Academy in Amman, Jordan. She is also an active volunteer, qualified observer and Board member of the New Jersey Astronomical Association, where she leads monthly Young Astronomer programs for children.

The New Jersey Astronomy Center for Education (NJACE) includes a 100-seat Planetarium and the Science Education Institute. The Science Education Institute offers high quality customized professional development programs for school districts, ranging from one-day workshops to long-term partnership programs. This year, NJACE provided 14 different science workshops on the RVCC campus, including programs for K-12 teachers, museum providers, amateur astronomers and college educators. In addition, NJACE provides consulting services to numerous districts and other educational organizations. For more information, visit raritanval.edu/njace.

SOFIA is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The aircraft is based at the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, CA. NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, CA, manages the program. Ames Research Center manages the SOFIA science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) in Columbia, MD, and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) at the University of Stuttgart.

For additional information about SOFIA, visit nasa.gov/sofia or dlr.de/en/sofia. To learn more about SOFIA's science mission and scientific instruments, visit sofia.usra.edu and dsi.uni-stuttgart.de/index.en.html.

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RVCC astronomy educator chosen for NASA research flight

Physics and Astronomy to Host Annual Open House on April 12

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Event runs from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at Physics Building and features free admission and free parking

By Ross French on March 25, 2014

The flyer for the 2014 Physics Open House

RIVERSIDE, Calif. The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Riverside will host its annual open house on April 12, 2014 from 14:30 p.m., allowing visitors to campus to have one-on-one interactions with faculty and students and get to know all about the cutting-edge research the department conducts.

The annual open house will be held in the Physics Building as well as outside in the adjacent courtyard. Parking in Lot 30 is free.

Presentations that showcase the research being done in the department will be held in the lobby and classrooms of the Physics Building. The presentations will each be about 20 minutes long. Presentations on astrophysics, cosmology and condensed matter physics will start at 2 p.m., take place in Room 3041 (the Reading Room), and be given twice; the talk on high energy physics will be ongoing in the lobby.

Fun, hands-on demonstrations will take place in the courtyard and inside the Physics Building. The demonstrations, which in the past have been very popular with children, will cover a variety of topics, including electricity, magnetism and sound/music.

The open house is on the same day as Highlander Day.

Archived under: Science/Technology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, highlander day, open house, physics, press release

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Physics and Astronomy to Host Annual Open House on April 12


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