Dark Sky News
May 2025
Meeting This Month: Apr. 24 @7:30pm
Click here for the SAS Picture of the Month (May 2025)!
3 day old Moon meets up within half a degree of the Pleiades.
The radiant is in the direction of the constellation Aquarius. The Eta Aquarids is one of two meteor showers created by debris from Comet Halley. There are generally between 10-30 meteors per hour in the northern hemisphere. The Earth passes through Halley’s path around the Sun a second time in October. This creates the Orionid meteor shower, which peaks around October 20.
When a Full Moon or a New Moon occurs around apogee, it’s called a Micromoon, Minimoon or Apogee Moon. A Micro Full Moon’s angular size is 12.5%–14.1% smaller than a Super Full Moon, and 5.9%–6.9% smaller than an average Full Moon (in years 1550–2650).
April 11 @8:47PM mag. -2.2 pass from WSW – ESE right over the belt of Orion and below Mars
April 13 @ 8:18PM mag. -2.2 pass from W – E right by Mars
April 14 @ 8:51PM mag. -2.2 pass from W – SE again, right by Mars
Without the full Moon, it might be a decent show… with about 18 meteors per hour!
Nights are going to get shorter! Take those DSO images!