Dr. Rishi Shah

This month's night skies offer scenic sights of the close congregation of major planets in the eastern sky before sunrise. The elusive planet Mercury would be fleeting fancifully against the backdrop of stars belonging to constellations Pisces (fishes), Aires (ram) and Taurus (bull). It would be lost in solar glare, due to its proximity to the Sun. However, it could be glimpsed from the middle of the month low in the western evening sky after sundown.

The planet Mercury will reach its greatest eastern elongation from the Sun on 29 April. Hence, it would hover above the western horizon during the evening. Planet Venus will be visible in the eastern sky before daybreak. It would glimmer gorgeously with the stars sketching the commanding constellation Aquarius (water bearer). The ruddy planet Mars would manifest magnificently before sunrise in the south-eastern sky. They would be marching with the stars in constellations Capricornus (sea goat) and Aquarius.

Jupiter
The massive planet Jupiter can be elegantly evinced in the eastern sky before sunrise. It would be calmly cavorting with the stars of constellations Aquarius and Pisces. The ringed planet Saturn could be spotted splendidly in the south-eastern sky before sunup. It would be mingling merrily with the stars that represent the top eastern edge of the constellation Capricornus. The tight tryst of Venus, Mars and Saturn in the eastern sky before sunrise could be relished ravishingly during the month’s beginning.

Resplendent rendezvous of Venus with Jupiter in the eastern sky before dawn during the month's end could be a tantalising treat for the eyes. The far-away greenish planet Uranus cannot be perceived easily due to its presence in the neighbourhood of the Sun. It will be trudging in the southern sparse section of constellation Aries. The distant bluish planet Neptune cannot be noticed nimbly. It would be near the Sun and gliding through the eastern area of Aquarius.

The new moon falls fascinatingly twice this month on 01 April, coinciding with the popular Ghode Jatra festival and 30 April on revered mothers’ day respectively. It would be moving through constellations Cetus (sea monster) and Pisces. The second new moon would queerly carry the moniker of the black moon.
A fantastically illuminated full moon could be marvelled at on 16 April. It would be drifting through the comely constellation Virgo (maiden). This full moon has been designated as the pink full moon because its appearance would resemble that of moss pink or wild ground phlox, which would be testified as one of the first spring flowers.
During this time the shad would swim river-upstream to spawn, it has also been called the fish moon. Chaitra Dashain and Ram Navami will be celebrated with veneration on 09 and 10 April. The new Nepali year featuring Bikram Sambat 2079 will commence cheerfully on 14 April 2022.

An average Lyrid meteor shower could mesmerise avid sky-gazers with scant twenty meteors per hour during its peak that would transpire from the night of the 22 April till the morning of the 23 April 2022. The showers would generally run annually from 16 to 25 April. Lyrids have allegedly been produced by dust left behind by comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which was detected in 1861. This could give rise to scintillating streaking specs of minute smudges that can last for a few seconds. The waning gibbous moon could wash away some fainter meteors this year, but the shower could still exhibit a smart show of scurrying shooting stars.

Meteor Shower
The best viewing of the shower could suggestively be undertaken from dark locations after midnight. The shower would display exquisitely during the wee hours of the night when its radiant could climb to the highest point in the sky. The Lyrids will be exuding from their radiant that will be resting reclusively in the cute constellation Lyra (harp).
More precisely, it can be located in the vicinity of the sprawling constellation Hercules (legendary hero) and Lyra border, several degrees southwest of the shimmering star Vega (Abvijit). The parent entity responsible for the Lyrids has been identified as Comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher), which has been classified as a long-term comet requiring whooping 415.5 years to tumble around the Sun once. Comet Thatcher had last arrived at Perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) in 1861.

American astronomer Alfred E. Thatcher ascertained it on 05 April 1861. It is expected to return in around 2283. When comets hurtle around the Sun, the debris they emit would gradually spread into the dusty tract around their trajectories. When the earth would pass through these paths, the petit particles would collide with our atmosphere and disintegrate, thereby creating charismatically colourful and fiery streaks in the sky.

Historically, the Lyrids are considered to be one of the oldest known meteor showers. Its first records of meteors mimicking the falling rain had been documented discreetly in 687 BC by the ancient Chinese astronomers during the spring and autumn period (circa 771 to 476 BC) with their tradition being equated with the credo and philosophy from iconic Chinese teacher Confucius.
Derived from the Greek word meteors (meaning high in the air), meteors can range in brightness from tiny blips just at the limit of visibility to fulgent fireballs lighting up the nightscape around ardent sky-onlookers. The rarest ones, nicknamed bolides, would even shatter explosively into fragments during their rapid descent with a bizarre loud boom. Every day, the earth is bombarded by roughly twenty-five million pieces of interplanetary dregs, totalling more than one hundred tonnes of sand-sized specks.

These space rocks strike the earth’s upper atmosphere at staggering speeds of thirty to seventy kilometres per second, concocting momentary flashes of light as sporadic meteors. They burn up at altitudes of eighty to one hundred kilometres above the earth. Meteor shower would obtain its name not from its progenitor, but from the constellation where the radiant would lie. Lyra could be assessed as a charming compact constellation with its sparkling star Vega (Avijit), which would mark one corner and eventually draw the famed imaginary Summer Triangle asterism together with other stars like arcane Altair (Sravana) in constellation Aquila (eagle) and Deneb in the constellation Cygnus (swan) that would be depicting the Northern Cross. They would be 25, 16.7 and 1216 light-years away.

On 30 April a peculiar partial solar eclipse could be witnessed from most of the southeast Pacific Ocean and southern South America, especially from Argentina. Such an eclipse would occur when the moon would partly cover the Sun. A solar eclipse can only be safely observed with a special solar filter or by looking at the Sun's reflection.

Giant Solar Eruption
This eclipse would not be seen here. Although our Sun has been one of the most spectacular stars, it could also be paradoxically terrifying. The European Space Agency (ESA)'s Solar Orbiter recently captured a giant solar eruption that had hurled hot plasma with solar smuts over three million kilometres into space.
This spewed material was not directed towards the earth. This incidence was ensnared as solar prominences, which have been often associated with coronal mass ejections (CME) from Sun’s surface, had unfurled from the Sun.

When they are facing the earth, they usually wreak havoc on modern-day communication technology. Solar storms triggered by Sun’s charged particles have buffeted earth and caused detrimental damage regularly to GPS signals that have been interconnected with air traffic navigation. Power grids and internet cables have presumably been victims of Sun’s flare-ups. Sun would be shining possibly for another five billion years, spending energy dominatingly in the form of heat and light that would be indispensable to our existence.
However, the Sun would still be an unpredictable and volatile mammoth ball of energy with a core temperature of astounding fifteen million degrees Celsius and holding all the bodies of our Solar System together. This most current solar threat could initiate a stark wake-up call for us and experts to stay vigilant and continue monitoring the Sun to avoid and mitigate any harm or destruction from solar eruptions in the future. NASA and the ESA have been studying meticulously and intensively and watching the Sun incessantly for warning us on time and to ward off impending dangers from such eerie events.

(Dr Shah is an academician at NAST and the Patron of Nepal Astronomy Society, NASO)