Summer astronomy from home

Yesterday I did an interview with a writer who is working on an article for a regional travel magazine. Its editors have concluded that most folks aren’t so anxious to go anywhere right now given our situation with coronavirus and stay-at-home orders. They correctly note that astronomy is something that one can enjoy without venturing too far afield.

It’s true! The sky is everywhere. All you have to do is look up! There are lots of interesting things to see that don’t even require a telescope or binoculars. Here’s a quick look at just a few of the things headed our way this spring and summer.

Venus 

Venus is the queen of the evening hours these days and is high in the west at dusk. She’s flirting with the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, and will be closest to this gorgeous star cluster tomorrow, April 3. The Sun will set around 7:40 p.m. Pacific time. Give it until a little after eight for the Pleiades to appear, then they and Venus will hang out together until they all set a bit after 11 o’clock. If you have binoculars or a telescope take a closer look to spot the phase of Venus. It’s a pretty thin crescent right now. The Pleiades look great through binoculars, too!

Comet ATLAS 

Discovered in December, the comet ATLAS, so-named because it was first spotted by astronomers using the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System in Hawaii, has some folks thinking it may become a highly visible naked-eye object, perhaps the best in 20 years. Comets can be pretty fickle, and such predictions are often the kiss of death. But it doesn’t cost anything to keep an eye out.

This article from EarthSky explains how to find ATLAS. If it’s going to be spectacular, that will happen later this month through most of May. Maybe.

Parade of planets 

Your view of Jupiter from your back yard won’t be
quite as great as the 2016 Hubble Space
Telescope photo. Credits: NASA, ESA, and
J. Nichols (University of Leicester)

Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are keeping pretty close company in the pre-dawn sky these days. You can spot all three low in the southeast after about 4:15 a.m. when Mars rises, the last of the trio to peek above the horizon. Mars will appear to move east of the others in the coming weeks and months, but Jupiter and Saturn will stay pretty close together all summer. They reach opposition on July 14 and July 20, respectively. Mars reaches opposition on October 13, and this year’s apparition of the Red Planet will be a good one. They aren’t great naked-eye targets, but Neptune will be at opposition on September 11 and Uranus will be opposite the Sun on Halloween.

Meteor showers 

The Perseid is probably the most well-known of the annual meteor showers. Maybe that’s because it’s pretty consistent and happens in the summer when folks don’t mind being outside in the evening. This year’s peak will occur around August 11-12. The last quarter Moon will brighten the sky somewhat at that time, making some of the dimmer meteors difficult or impossible to spot. While you can catch many of the brighter meteors even from light-polluted cities, the darker the sky you have, the better the show. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks around April 22 and the Eta Aquarids May 5. EarthSky has a full rundown of the year’s meteor showers.

Keep looking up!