VENUS AND THE PLEIADES: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look west. Venus and the Pleiades are converging for a rare conjunction. At closest approach on April 3rd, Venus will be inside the star cluster. Viewed through binoculars, it will look as if a supernova (Venus) has gone off among the Seven Sisters. Enjoy the show! Sky maps: April 1, 2, 3.
A COMET TALE: Comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4) has sprung a tail--and it's impressive. "According to my observations, it is 1.2 degrees long," reports Gerald Rhemann who recorded this animation on March 27th from his backyard observatory in Eichgraben, Lower Austria:
That's 3.3 million km, or more than twice as wide as the sun. The outer reaches of ATLAS's tail are still faint, but the gossamer filaments can be seen sweeping across the stars in Rhemann's animation. "I took these pictures using a 12-inch telescope," he says.
Comet ATLAS is now shining like an 8th magnitude star--too dim to see with the unaided eye but and easy target for backyard telescopes like Rhemann's. The comet is expected to become much brighter. By the time it sweeps by the sun closer than Mercury in late May, it could rival Venus in the evening sky. That would be a comet tale, indeed.
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MR. SPOCK IN THE STRATOSPHERE: If you would like to support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program, there's a logical way to do it. Puchase this Mr. Spock collector's item. Here is the green-blooded science officer floating 32.2 km (112,200 ft) above Death Valley National Park in central California:
You can have him for $170.10. The price, in case you're wondering, is the serial number of the Enterprise, NCC1701, divided by 10. The students are selling Spock to buy more helium! He comes with a greeting card showing the high-quality resin bobblehead in flight and telling the story of his journey to the stratosphere and back again.
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