NIGHT SKY THIS WEEK 8-14 APRIL 2019.

The Night Sky This Week 8-14 April 2019.

Another week has gone by and still Durban sees more cloud than clear sky at night. On the odd occasion there were some brief sucker holes in the cloud cover and I could make out a constellation or two.
But still nothing new to add to the log books.
Let's hope this week brings better luck and some eyepiece time.

So let's see what we can expect from this week and our night skies.
All images courtesy of SkySafari, a link to the webpage is under the "Useful links" tab in the right column of this blog.

MOON AND PLANETS.

The Moon is currently at the New Moon phase and will only start to appear low on our Western horizons for a short spell each night as the week progresses. Not enough to interfere with any deep sky observing though!
On Tuesday 9 April the Moon and Mars will pass within 4°35' of each other, too wide for a telescope field of view but a easy naked eye and binocular target.
Mercury will become visible from Southern Africa in the early mornings as it approaches it's greatest elongation West. At it's highest point it should be 19 Degrees above your horizon just before sunrise.
Venus is still a strong early morning planet and rises shortly after 3AM and is visible until sunrise. You can find Venus by looking toward your Eastern horizon in the constellation Aquarius.
At about the same time you can take a look at Neptune in your telescope, again it will be found close to Venus in the constellation Aquarius.
Jupiter and Saturn now both rise before midnight and are easily seen naked eye. Jupiter will be found above your Eastern horizon in the constellation Ophiuchus and Saturn not far below Jupiter in the constellation Sagittarius.

DEEP SKY OBSERVING(DSO).

With no Moon to wash out the skies now is a good time to check out some Globular Clusters.
Let's turn our attention to the constellation Ara and two of the globular clusters that can be found there. These will be best viewed after midnight as Ara starts to rise in the South Eastern skies.
So let's take a closer look at NGC 6352 and NGC 6397.

NGC 6352 Globular cluster in Ara, magnitude +7.96.

First discovered by James Dunlop on May 14 1847 and catalogued as  Dunlop 417. It was later also found by Barnard and made it into the New General Catalogue as NGC 6352. This globular cluster is approximately 18, 600 light years from Earth.
Due to this globular clusters size it will require a medium(6") scope to resolve it.
It is a easy star hop from the nearby variable double star Alpha Arae.
Have fun finding and logging this GC.

NGC 6397, Globular cluster in Ara, magnitude +5.73.

This globular cluster lies at about 7,200 light years from Earth and one of the two closest to Earth, the other is NGC 6121 or Messier 4.
This is a easy globular cluster to resolve in even modest scopes and a easy star hop from the nearby star Beta Arae.
A team of astronomers used this cluster to estimate the age of the Milky Way. The Milky Way was estimated at 13.6 billion years old, almost the age of the Universe itself.
So a interesting cluster to add to your log book.
Have fun finding this and seeing how well you can resolve individual stars with higher powered eyepieces.
This globular cluster is estimated to have a population of 400,000 stars!

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION(ISS).

The station sightings this week will all be early morning sightings. So if you are up early for work set some time aside and enjoy seeing the station as it sails high over African skies. To see where and when it will be visible over your location you can click on the "Spot the station" link under the useful links tab in the right column of this blog.

The table below is taken from the Spot the station website and shows the dates and times for Durban.

Date	Visible	Max Height	Appears	Disappears	Share Event
Fri Apr 12, 5:53 AM	1 min	18°	10° above SSW	18° above S
Sat Apr 13, 5:03 AM	3 min	13°	10° above S	12° above SE
Sun Apr 14, 5:48 AM	4 min	73°	10° above SW	37° above ENE

Have fun out there and always keep looking up!