Full moon will seem bigger, brighter

April's full moon on the night of April 7 is the second of a series of three "supermoons" in 2020.

The first full moon of spring, it is also at perigee (closest to Earth) on this night, appearing about seven per cent bigger and roughly 15 per cent brighter. It is sometimes referred to as the full pink moon (after the pink wildflower phlox that appears throughout eastern North America in April) and also the Paschal full moon for its role in determining the date of Easter.

The only bright evening planet this month, Venus, sits just to the upper left of the Pleiades (the seven sisters) star cluster high in the western sky as darkness falls, not setting until around midnight. Look for the zodiacal light between Venus and the western horizon as the sky darkens. Use bright Jupiter (magnitude -2.0) high in the pre-dawn southeatern sky and Saturn (magnitude +0.7), sitting to its far, lower left to possibly find Mercury. Draw a line from Jupiter thru Saturn, passing by Mars (magnitude +0.7), down towards the sunrise point; using binoculars, you may catch a quick glimpse of Mercury (magnitude 0.0) just above the southeastern horizon before it is lost in the glow of the rising sun.

Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS is rapidly brightening. Currently at magnitude +7.6, it is predicted to brighten to naked-eye visibility in April or May, possibly brightening to magnitude -1.0. as it nears perihelion (closest approach to the sun) at the end of

May. Consult a good online star chart to find its current position between the constellations of Lynx and Camelopardalis in the northern night sky.

COMA STAR CLUSTER

Coma Berenices (Latin for Berenice's Hair) is a small, unobtrusive collection of stars north of Virgo, west of Bootes, and east of Leo. In classical Greek and Roman astronomy, it was considered an asterism (a picture), only being designated a constellation in 1602 by the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe.

It was named for Queen Berenice I (246-222 BC), wife and co-regent of Ptolemy III, ruler of Egypt. It is the only modern constellation named after a historic person.

At the time of the asterism's naming, King Ptolemy III was engaged in a series of long-running wars (the Syrian Wars, fought between the third and second centuries B.C.E.) with the Seleucid Empire. When Ptolemy left for the third of these wars, Queen Berenice cut off her long, dark tresses and placed them in the Temple of Aphrodite (the Greek goddess of love) as a votive offering (an item, not intended to be used or retrieved, placed in a sacred location) to the goddess for the safe return of her husband from the war.

The day after his return, it was discovered that Berenice's shorn locks were missing from the temple. To explain their disappearance (and, more likely, to cover their butts for losing the queen's hair), the local priests said that Aphrodite, to honour the queen's sacrifice for love, had taken her hair, and placed it in the heavens, pointing to the collection of stars in the night sky that would, thereafter, be referred to as Coma Berenice. Obviously, neither the queen, the priests or anyone else had noticed this particular star grouping in the night sky prior to this.

Coma Berenice is primarily identified by its L-shape, with its three brightest stars

— Alpha, Beta and Gamma Comae Berenices — delineating the shape. The Coma Star Cluster (Berenice's Hair) is the bright scattering of stars visible diagonally between the two end stars. It also contains one of the night sky's richest galaxy clusters, with over 1,000 nearby galaxies visible to Earth-bound telescopes.

Along with the Leo Cluster, the Coma Star Cluster is one of the two major galaxy clusters that make up the Super Cluster. Due to its high position in the northern sky, Coma Berenice sits far from the dust of our galaxy's plane, thus permitting the star cluster (Berenice's Hair) to be readily seen in binoculars, and just visible to the naked eye, from a dark site on a clear night.

Until next week, clear skies.

EVENTS

April 7

• Moon at perigee; about 8 p.m.

• Full (pink) moon, 11:35 p.m.

123RF The first full moon of spring should appear about seven per cent bigger and roughly 15 per cent brighter.