Tomato, tomaaato, it was quite an eclipse

'Twas a great night for a lunar eclipse -- or rather I should say, a great early morning. At about 0415 hours the umbral shadow cone of Earth started to darken the left side of the lunar face and proceeded to totally cover it just in time for the moon to set behind the western horizon.

Although the shadow did cover the face of the moon, there was a very slight crescent of sunlight that still tinged the upper edge, so some questioned if this should be called a "total" eclipse. All I would say is "tomato/tomaaato."

It was still a great experience even if the lunar face was not as red as I have seen it in previous eclipses.

Now, to current events. If you have been participating in our "Venus Watch," you know the planet is rising higher in the evening sky and is headed for an "extra point kick" between the two prominent open star clusters; the Hyades and the Pleiades, both in Taurus, the Bull.

If you have not been following Venus, now is the time to start. Grab your binoculars and head outside about an hour after local sunset and look west. Hopefully you have a place with a relatively clear view of the western horizon, no trees or houses in the way.

The planet Venus is the brightest object in that direction so you can't miss it. The best night for viewing will be on the evenings of April 12/13 when the planet will be directly between the clusters. That will give us the opportunity to view both clusters.

Binoculars are our tool-of-choice because both clusters are too large to get a good view in a telescopic field of view.

We all know the Pleiades--visible to the right of Venus--is called "The Seven Sister," and can be seen as such with just the naked eye, but a binocular view will show hundreds of stars surrounding the seven bright blue stars of the cluster. The cluster is located about 400 light years away.

The Hyades -- to the left of Venus--makes up the "V" shape of the face of Taurus with the bright reddish star Aldebaran serving as the bull's eye. Aldebaran is not part of the Hyades cluster. It is located about half way to the cluster which is located about 150 light years distant.

Keep watching Venus as it moves on night by night between the two clusters. On the evening of Tuesday, April 21, the slender crescent of a four-day old moon will join the party. Will be a good opportunity to break out the binoculars again to look for Earthshine on the face of the moon.

Earthshine is sunlight reflected of of Earth back onto the moon. It gives the unlit portion of the moon a rather faint, ghostly appearance.

The spring Lyrid meteor shower will peak on the morning of Thursday, April 23. The maximum zenith hourly rate (ZHR) is expected to be between 15-20 per hour. More about that later.

Be sure to keep up with our Venus Watch, if not nightly then at least once a week because there are great things to come. The moon plays tag with Venus again on June 21st; Venus meets the M44 star cluster on June 13th; joins the moon and Jupiter on June 20; and has a really super conjunction with Jupiter on June 30. There are great things to come so--as on old astronomer friend of mine says--"Keep looking up."

SKYWATCH: Third-quarter moon, Saturday, April 11.

NEXT WEEK: More astronomical blathering.