All times listed are in Central Daylight Time.
For more information, call the Museum at 337-291-5544 and ask to speak with someone in the planetarium. Some of these objects and events can be seen during Planetarium star parties — check the Museum web site to see a list of star parties and other events hosted by the Planetarium. Reminders of some of these events will appear on the Lafayette Science Museum Facebook page as the dates approach.
April 4: Acadiana observers will see a total lunar eclipse just before dawn. The noticeable part of the eclipse will start at 4:16 a.m., with totality beginning at 5:58 a.m. Unfortunately the moon will set about 6:00 a.m., making totality very hard to see because of brightening twilight and interfering buildings and trees. Observers will need a very clear horizon from the west-southwest to the west to see totality. The moon will be just barely inside Earth’s inner shadow and there will only be about 4 or 5 minutes of totality! One result of this is that there may be very noticeable differences in the color and brightness of the moon as different parts of it pass through different parts of Earth’s shadow. Check September 27 for a better lunar eclipse!
April 7–15: Throughout this period brilliant Venus will be in the same binocular view as the Pleiades star cluster (also called The Seven Sisters). It will be easy to see Venus change its place each night as it orbits the sun.
April 8: Early risers can see the moon and Saturn in the same binocular view during the predawn hours today, a striking sight.
April 21: The bright object near the moon tonight will be Venus.
April 25–26: The bright object near the moon these two nights will be Jupiter.
April 28–May 10: This may be the best time all year to see the planet Mercury in the evening sky! It will look like a moderately bright star low in the west-northwest as the first stars become visible. Look for its motion from night to night to tell it apart from actual stars in that direction.
May 5: Early risers can see the moon and Saturn in the same binocular view during the predawn hours today.
May 7–May 11: Use binoculars during this period to see Venus in the same view with a star cluster called Messier 35.
May 15: Early risers will be able to see the moon and Uranus in the same binocular view this morning. Since several stars in the view will look like moderately faint Uranus, remember that the planet will be above and to the left of the thin crescent moon. The moon and Uranus rising as twilight begins means that viewing will probably be possible only between about 5:00 and 5:30 a.m.
May 21: The bright object near the moon tonight will be Venus. Watch how the moon changes its position as it orbits the Earth during the next couple nights.
May 22: Saturn will be in opposition tonight, meaning that it will be on the opposite side of the sky from the sun. It will rise at sunset in the east-southeast and be visible all night. Telescope observers have several months to observe the rings in the early evening.
May 23: The bright object near the moon tonight will be Jupiter.
June 1: The brightest starlike object near the moon tonight will be Saturn.
June 6: Telescope observers can look at brilliant Venus in the west after sunset to see the planet at its half phase.
June 7–19: Use your binoculars to see brilliant Venus in the same view with the Beehive star cluster. The motion of Venus will be obvious from night to night, and the planet will appear closest to the cluster on the evenings of June 12 & 13. Remember that Venus is about 55 million miles away at this time but the cluster stars are over 500 light years away! Another way to think of that is that light reflecting off Venus arrives here after a 5 minute trip, but light given off by the Beehive’s stars takes over 500 years to get here!
June 15–July 10: This will be a good time to see Mercury low in the eastern sky during early dawn twilight. It will look like a moderately bright starlike object. Use binoculars for a striking view of it near the bright, reddish-orange star Aldebaran. If you look around 5:00 a.m. while the sky is still a bit dark as twilight begins, you may see Mercury moving from night to night against the faint background stars of the Hyades star cluster.
June 20: Venus and Jupiter now look close together in the sky although they are of course hundreds of millions of miles apart in actuality. The moon appears near both of them tonight.
June 21: Earth reaches the June solstice position in its orbit at 11:38 a.m., officially beginning Summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
June 30: Jupiter and Venus will appear in the same low power view in a telescope tonight. As the sky darkens can you see all four of Jupiter’s largest moons?
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