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A few interesting things happen this month. Stay tuned!!
MERCURY - will be too close to the Sun to be visible most of this month.
VENUS - will also be too close to the Sun to be very visible. On the 7th, there is a daylight occultation by the Moon, but difficult to see in our area of the country.
EARTH - the 8th is the Total Solar Eclipse of 2024!!
Hoping for clear skies wherever you are! Lyrid meteor shower begins on the 14th, peaks the night of 22-23, best time is before dawn. Possibly 10-15 meteors per hour, but viewing is impacted by the almost full moon.
MARS - continues to move close towards the Sun but may be seen in the morning sky early in the month. On the 10th, Mars has a conjunction with Saturn and will be just 0.6° apart, with magnitudes of 1.2 & 1.1 respectively. Look in the E/SE before sunrise.
JUPITER - fades into the sunset as it heads towards a solar conjunction in May. On the evening of the 10th, the Moon will be about 4° up & to the right of Jupiter (magnitude of -2.0) with the Pleiades above the Moon.
SATURN - triple conjunction on the 6th with Mars, Moon & Saturn, they will form a triangle in the E/SE predawn hours, about 0.5° apart. Mars will show its red hue and Saturn a pale yellow.
URANUS - will be low in the evening twilight and lost in solar glare late in the month.
NEPTUNE - emerges into the morning twilight this month.
On April 8, 2024, the rare event of a total solar eclipse will visit the continental United States. The path enters in southern Texas and exits in Maine. While the eclipse is a total eclipse if you are viewing from within the 115 mile wide path, in Des Moines is will only be a "partial" eclipse. The Sun will be 83% covered by the Moon for folks in Des Moines at maximum. The eclipse will begin about 1:00 p.m., reach maximum about 2:00 p.m., and return to normal Sun about 3:00 p.m. in Des Moines. The nearest location to Des Moines for centerline of the eclipse is around Carbondale, IL. Timing will be similar to Des Moines there, but totality will last over four minutes on the centerline. The shadow of the Moon will be moving across the Earth at nearly 2000 mph as it passes by us.
Meteors can appear randomly at any time - a stray rock can be pulled into Earth's atmosphere by Earth's gravity. But meteor showers happen regularly on specific dates each year as Earth passes through debris that was left in Earth's orbit by something like a comet years earlier.
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Ashton Observatory is located in Ashton Wildwood County Park, Jasper County, IA
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