April Space Station and Sky

By Chuck McPartlin

The International Space Station will be making a few visible passes through Santa Barbara’s early April evening skies, weather permitting. Its orbit may change from time to time, so to get the latest and most complete predictions, visit Heavens Above.

On Thursday, April 1, no fooling, the ISS will rise at 9:03 PM PDT in the NNW, and make a low pass from below Cassiopeia, then through Cepheus, and vanish in our shadow while below the handle of the Little Dipper in the N at 9:05 PM.

Friday’s first pass will begin at 8:16 PM in the NNW, and cruise low over our mountains through Draco to Boötes in the ENE, where it will fade away at 8:20 PM. It will pop up again at 9:52 PM in the WNW for 39 seconds in the feet of Perseus.

On Saturday, in the brightest pass of this sequence, the station will rise at 9:05 PM in the NW, pass through the head of Perseus, climb through dim Camelopardalus, between bright Capella and Polaris, and evaporate into the Earth’s shadow high in the NNW at 9:07 PM.

A long bright pass will ensue on Sunday, starting at 8:17 PM in the NW, from below Cassiopeia, past Polaris, through the handle of the Big Dipper near the bowl, then dim Canes Venatici and Coma Berenices, vanishing as it reaches Virgo low in the E at 8:22 PM.

Monday’s ISS pass will rise at 9:07 PM in the WNW, go below Perseus, then through Taurus and the middle of Orion, passing very close to the Great Nebula (M42) in his sword at 9:09 PM, then on toward Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, where it will fade away in the SW at 9:10 PM.

On Tuesday, April 6, there will be a bright pass starting in the WNW in Andromeda at 8:19 PM, progressing through Perseus, Taurus between orange Mars and Aldebaran, the head of Orion, dim Monoceros, and over the back of Canis Major, ending low in the SSE at 8:25 PM.

The ISS will take a night off, then reappear for the final pass of this sequence on Thursday, rising at 8:22 in the W in setting Aries, going below Taurus, Orion, and the Big Dog to set at 8:26 PM in the south in Vela.

The space station will return to our evening skies in the second week of May, after a few early morning appearances.

April Sky

April 22 is Earth Day. Celebrate online. We’ve only got one planet, so let’s take better care of it.

Mars is fading rapidly, but will have a nice telescopic/binocular conjunction with the rich open star cluster M35 in the feet of Gemini on the evening of April 26.

In April and May, during prime observing hours, the bright band of our galaxy, the Milky way, is low around our horizon, so we are looking up out of the obscuring gas and dust in its plane into intergalactic space. This is the time to hunt down the distant faint fuzzies of the galaxy clusters in Leo, Coma Berenices, and Virgo.