Mars is moving eastward

Have you been watching Mars lately? It is moving eastward among the background stars and is traveling from the middle of the constellation Gemini up toward its two brightest stars, Castor and Pollux. By month's end it will form an almost straight line with the pair.

Earlier in the month there was a nice Mars-Castor-Pollux triangle almost as good as the Mars-Betelgeuse-Aldebaran triangle of earlier in the year.

Gemini is the rectangle-shaped constellation located above our old friend Orion and to the left (as you are looking at it) of Auriga, the Charioteer with bright Capella.

It is also below the rather dim constellation Cancer, the Crab which will feature a visit by the reddish planet next month when Mars will appear to give M44, the Beehive Star Cluster, an extra "star."

M44 is an open star cluster which can be seen without optical aid from a dark place as a fuzzy spot, but with a pair of binoculars it can be readily seen. In a small telescope individual stars can be resolved. It is located about 550 light years away right in the middle Cancer.

The apparent motion of Mars against the background stars is due to the orbital motion of both the Earth and Mars around the Sun. Mars is now almost back to the same place it was in November of last year, in the middle of Gemini.

The Sun is now well north of due east in case you haven't been watching sunrises. It will continue to move north until the summer solstice, or the first day of summer,when it will start the journey back to the south and the days begin to shorten.

I was hoping to talk about more appearances of the International Space Station during the next week but, alas, there will be none, at least up until April 29. That is as far as my list goes for right now. Last week there were some very good appearances but orbital mechanics being what they are ...

SKY WATCH: Elsewhere in the sky Saturn is holding forth with bright Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, the Lion in the early evening and the king of the planets, Jupiter, joins the show after 2 am with the stars of summer. Look for the Big Dipper asterism high overhead in the early evening. It is currently upside down as though pouring its water upon the Earth giving us "April Showers."

A third quarter moon will join Jupiter in the early morning hours of Sunday, April 27.

Next time: More astronomical blathering.