The Sky of Alexandria during the Month of April 2017
01 April 2017
Prepared by: Dr. Omar Fikry 

Spring has started officially; as the weather has improved, now we can look at the sky but as I mentioned previously light pollution deprives us from this visual and intellectual pleasure. Astronomers and astronomy amateurs declared that 2017 is relatively poor in terms of the number of phenomena that could be monitored. However, there are some important phenomena that could be monitored in the sky of Alexandria. 

Saturday Night, 1 April 2017

Mercury will be in its Great Eastern elongation after reaching its maximum height in the sky at night, specifically just after sunset. Sky watchers and astrophotography amateurs will be able to watch Mercury in a scene that only needs a cloud-free sky and a suitable spot for observation and photography. The planet Mercury will be 19 degrees high, which means that the period of its survival in the horizon will be limited that night and begins with sunset. it can be observed by the naked eye or a small telescope. Mercury will appear as follows. The image, as determined by the famous stellarium program. It is known that Mercury is never complete, neither Mercury nor Venus because they are located between Earth and Sun.


 
Saturday Night, 1 April 2017

Even if the sky is clear and you were able to find a spot away from the light pollution, the time following the sunset is filled with a reasonable number of shining objects which can be seen by the naked eye and they appear as shown in the photo: Mercury, Mars, the moon of the month of Ragab, in addition to the navigational stars, the brightest stars of the sky, Betelgeuse, and the Capella star within the Auriga Constellation; they are all celestial bodies that can be seen without the need of telescopes.
 

 
Friday Night, 7 April 2017

The giant planet Jupiter will be at its closest point from Earth and its face will be brighter than any day of the year; it will be seen all night. Starting from this night, you will be able to observe the and take photos of Jupiter and its bright stars. A small telescope can be used to see the gaseous details on the surface of Jupiter.



Tuesday Night, 11 April 2017

It is the night when the crescent of the month of Ragab will turn into a full moon. Some amateurs do not like full moons, because the prevent them from observing the faint celestial bodies. However, in the West, the full moon is a bad omen. On the nights of the full moon, the wolves become active and their howling becomes loud. The ancient people of America called April's full moon as the pink moon because it rises when the vast lands are covered with pink flowers in Spring.
 
The full moon will be at 8:08 CLT.


Saturday Night, 22 April 2017

Meteor showers can only be seen in a completely dark place. On this night, torrents of meteor showers will be coming from the Lyra constellation. The number of meteors seen by the observers are not large, but they will be present at a rate of 20 meteor per hour. this meteor shower was discovered in 1861. We start monitoring this meteor shower during the period of 16-25 April. However, the largest number of meteors will be seen tonight. Observing will not start unless it is totally dark after midnight.

Photos credit: NASA's educational website, but they have been edited and arabized, in addition to stellarium program.
 
 
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