Springtime skies blooming with activity

Eclipses take center stage this month with one Hybrid eclipse and one Penumbral Lunar eclipse. The first eclipse is a solar eclipse that occurs on Friday April 8th -- right in the middle of rush hour if you live on the East coast. Unfortunately, this eclipse will not be visible throughout the entire United States. South Florida has the best view with approximately 40 percent of the Sun blocked out by the Moon. If you live in the Northeast, Midwest and West the eclipse will not be visible.*

The second eclipse is a penumbral lunar eclipse. It will be on Sunday April 24th. The Moon will pass into the Penumbral shadow (or lightest part of the Earth’s shadow) at 3:49 am EDT. Since the Moon will not be passing through the darkest portion of the Earth’s shadow, it will be difficult to notice much change in the shading of the Moon.

Planets rising
You can spot several planets in the nighttime sky this April. The king of the planets, Jupiter, rises just before sunset this month. Outside of the Moon, Jupiter will be the brightest object in the nighttime sky in April -- and on the 22nd, the Moon will be very near Jupiter in the sky.

Saturn is currently high in the sky after sunset. You will find it in the constellation of Gemini. Saturn will set around 1:30 am.

Mars rises about 3 hours before the Sun and continues to get brighter throughout the month.

Mercury will be visible this month, but for those in the north it will be difficult to spot this planet due to its proximity to the horizon before sunrise. If you live in the South, you can spot Mercury low in the east 30 minutes before sunrise.

The hottest and brightest planet, Venus is not visible in the sky this month.

Lions, bulls and an eye test
Here are some constellations you can easily see this month:

Orion the Hunter and Taurus the Bull continue to move lower in the west and disappear below the horizon before 11:30 pm. Following Orion in the nighttime sky is his hunting dog, Canis Major. The belt stars of Orion point to the dog’s nose called Sirius. The two stars above Sirius mark the dog's ears, a triangle of stars below Sirius mark the dogs front legs, and a line of stars stretching east from Sirius mark the dog’s back and back legs.

You can also spot Leo the Lion this month. By 9:00 the backwards question mark of the Lion’s head will be near overhead.

The Big Dipper is high in the sky and easily visible in the northern sky -- even if you live in the South. The Big Dipper is composed of seven stars with three stars making up the handle of the Dipper and four stars that make the bowl.

If you want to test your eyesight, look for the middle star in the handle of the Big Dipper. This star is called Mizar and very near the star is a dimmer one called Alcor. These two stars orbit around each other in a binary star system once every million years, although each star also has its own companion star as well. The second companions are very close to the brighter stars and require the use of a telescope to be observed. If there is a lot of light pollution around you, it will be difficult to find Alcor even if you have good eyesight.

*If you choose to observe the solar eclipse this month, there are two things to remember. One, never look directly at the Sun even during an eclipse because even though part of the Sun is blocked out, it can still be very damaging to your eyes. Second, do not try to observe the eclipse while driving unless you want to end up in the back of the car in front of you.