Los astronomical events of the month of April are among the most interesting, as they contain a beautiful shower of stars: the lyrids. In addition, immediately after there is another much less known: the pi-pupids. And this year there is something special; Well, in some parts of the world, you will have the privilege of seeing a hybrid solar eclipse.
These are the first astronomical events of spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the south, so temperatures will generally be mild. That allows us to go out at night to observe the sky.
A sky in which, in addition to all the aforementioned, there will also be, as always, beautiful planetary conjunctions. The Moon will rise in the sky along with some planets, which will make it even more beautiful than usual. If all this has seemed interesting to you, take out the agenda to write down the dates.
We start with the full moon
Like every month, the full moon has a name from Native American legends. In this case, we will see it shortly after the start of the month, on April 6.
This month is known as pink moon, because it was the time when the moss of that color began to appear near their camps. But, also, some coastal tribes knew it as fish moonas it marked the beginning of the time when the tarpon swam upriver to spawn.
A curious eclipse to mark astronomical events
This year, the astronomical events of April also come with a hybrid solar eclipse. That is, an eclipse in which the Moon is almost too close to Earth to completely block out the sun.
For this reason, it is seen as a total eclipse in some parts of the world and annular in others. In other places, moreover, we will not see anything. The lucky locations this time will be the south of the Indian Ocean, from where it will move to western Australia and southern Indonesia. Furthermore, in almost the rest of Indonesian and Australian a partial eclipse can be seen, as can be read on the map published by NASA.
Two meteor showers, protagonists of astronomical events
The queens of the astronomical events of April are the lyrids. This meteor shower, coming from the debris of the comet C/1861 G1 Thatcherit may look between April 16 and 25. However, its peak occurs in the night of April 22 to 23.
It is an average rain, with about 20 meteors per hour in its heyday. Also, this year it will take place a couple of days after the new Moon, so the dark skies will be much more conducive to the show.
On the other hand, the rain of the pi-pupids. In their case, they come from the remains of the comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup and it is estimated that its peak will be april 24. However, it should be noted that it is not a meteor shower visible every year. The last years it was detectable were 2018 and 2019. There are no predictions for this year, but it will be worth taking a look at the sky. After all, there will still be some lyrids streaking the sky.
Companions of the Moon in the sky
As usual in astronomical events, the Moon will make an appearance on some days in conjunction with certain planets. Among the most interesting dates are April 16, 21, 23 and 26when we will see her together Saturn, Mercury, Venus and Mars, respectively.
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