STAR GAZER
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION
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Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers
and mark Tuesday night April 8th as the night when a cosmic occult
occurrence will occur. That's because whenever one object in the
heavens passes directly in front of another object and hides it
from view we call such an event an occultation because the word
occult comes from the word to hide. And next Tuesday April 8th
in early evening an exquisite crescent Moon complete with earthshine
will indeed pass over the fabled star cluster the Seven Sisters
and occult them, that is hide them from view for a brief time.
Let me show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for Tuesday evening April 8th just after dark facing west where you will see an exquisite 3 day old crescent Moon complete with earthshine. Now in case you've forgotten what earthshine is, simply keep in mind that the Moon does not make its own light but shines by reflected sunlight. So the bright part of the crescent Moon you'll be seeing is sunlight bouncing directly off the Moon and back to Earth. However when the Moon is a crescent it frequently looks like there's a dark full Moon nestled within this crescent. And we call this earthshine because it is light from the sun bouncing off our Earth onto the unlit portion of the Moon and back again. And believe me the crescent Moon with earthshine is always a beautiful sight.
But on this night if you look close by you will see several stars bunched up together in a group, the tiny cluster of stars known for thousands of years as the Seven Sisters, The Pleiades. And this evening from many places across the North American continent Moon watchers will be able to see the Moon slowly pass over and hide several of the sisters' stars from view. And although this will look fabulous with the naked eye, I strongly encourage you to use a pair of binoculars because not only will the Moon with earthshine look great but you'll also see dozens more stars in this cluster which is actually a group of about 100 stars, 407 light years away, which means the light we'll see next week left these stars 407 years ago in 1601, only 9 years before Galileo was the first to use a telescope to discover the extra` sisters.
Now I strongly suggest that you start watching at dusk just before it gets completely dark out and have a fairly clear flat horizon because the Moon and The Pleiades will set about three hours after dusk. And as it gets darker you can look to the left of the Moon and The Pleiades and you'll see the dim v-shaped group of stars called the Hyades which mark the face of Taurus the bull. In fact Taurus' red eye star Aldebaran should easily catch your attention as will Betelgeuse the red shoulder star of Orion the Hunter and the red planet Mars which on Friday April 11th will be visited by a wonderful first quarter Moon. So get thee out next Tuesday night and why not share this occult occurrence with a friend? Da-da da-da da-da da-da. Keep looking up!
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Horkheimer: On Tuesday night April 8th a cosmic occult occurrence
will occur. Just after dark face west and you'll see an exquisite
crescent Moon complete with earthshine which looks like a dark
full Moon nestled within it and just above it a star cluster called
the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades. Then for the next 2 1/2 hours
watch the Moon slowly occult, that is pass over and hide, several
of these celestial siblings. Use binoculars and you'll see there
are more than Seven Sisters here, about 100. And keep in mind
that the light you see next Tuesday left these stars 407 years
ago in 1601, nine years before Galileo was the first to use a
telescope to discover the extra sisters. Keep looking up!
How did you like this episode?
Please give us your comments. (Click
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* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
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