What’s up? Case Rijsdijk’s
The month starts with a waning gibbous Moon that is almost full, with the new Moon following on the 14th, the first crescent becoming visible the following evening and full Moon on the 28th. With the equinox now well past, the days are getting noticeably longer; we get over an extra hour of daylight this month. And of course, those who are observant will have noticed that the southern side of their houses are starting to get a little sunshine in the early morning and evening.
A sliver of the Moon passes through the Umbra, the darkest part of the Earth's shadow, on the evening of the 28th, and the shadow will cover about 10% of the Moon. It is safe to use binoculars to see this.
The Orionid meteor shower reaches a peak on the 22nd, visible between midnight and 04:00 if you look to the upper right of Orion, now prominent in the morning sky. Their high velocity should make them appear bright, with about one becoming visible every minute or so.
The word "planet" comes from the Greek "planetes", meaning "wanderers", because they move relative to each other, the Moon and the background stars. This is beautifully shown when looking north-east in the early morning from the 9th to the 11th this month. It starts with Venus shining brightly above the star Regulus with the Moon to the left of the pair. Follow the movement of these objects over the next few days and by the 11th the Moon will have moved away and Venus and Regulus will have changed their relative position. On the 10th, Venus becomes visible at noon in the north-west.
On the evening of the 29th, there is a pretty asterism in the north-east after sunset, when the giant planet Jupiter is shining brightly above a Moon just past full, and then lower above the horizon is the well known group of bright stars isiLimela
(or the Pleiades) - all in an almost vertical line.
The only constellations that are easily recognisable in the evening sky are the Scorpion, the Southern Cross and the Pointers. Since the latter grouping is now well down, it is a good time to try and find the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, LMC and SMC, if you are away from the city lights. Look to the upper right of the Cross and you should be able to see the two small fuzzy patches. They are the two nearest galaxies to our own Milky Way and are much smaller, about 160 000 and 180 000 light years away from us respectively.
The morning sky, just before sunrise, sees the welcome return of the constellation of Orion. The Pleiades, also called isiLimela, rise just after midnight and before sunrise Orion dominates the northern sky and the small clusters of the Hyades and isiLimela ring in a glorious start to the day.
On the 4th, there is a pretty asterism; a waning crescent Moon can be seen close to the small open cluster of the Hyades, with the red giant star Aldebaran, and also close to the bright cluster of isiLimela to the left of the Moon. To the right of Aldebaran is the giant planet Jupiter, shining brightly - a nice start to the day.