Celestial Events for the Spring Scrimmage - 4/19 to 4/23/23

So what is going on in the night sky for the upcoming Spring Scrimmage, specifically Wednesday night 4/19 thru Saturday night 4/22 (and the early morning of 4/23)

4/19 (Wednesday) - New Moon at 11:12 pm, also an Annular-Total Eclipse but only seen from the other side of Planet Earth

4/22 (Saturday) - as the Moon rises in the eastern sky in the morning, it will only be about a Moon's diameter away from the Pleiades.  The Moon will be a challenge to find and so will be the Pleiades, but it may be worth the effort to see if any of the 7 sisters can be seen in the morning sky thru a telescope

4/22 (Saturday) - at 8 pm we have the peak of the Lyrid Meteor Shower.  This shower has a typical zenith hourly rate of 20 and a duration of about 1.3 days.  Best time to look for Lyrids will be late evening to dawn on both Friday and Saturday.

Mars is still prominent but not nearly as bright or as large (looking) as when at opposition at the end of 2022, but still worth a look.

Additionally - don't forget about the great Omega Centauri globular cluster.  We are indeed fortunate to be able to see it due to our relatively low latitude of 31 degrees north at White Horse.  Couple that with our good horizons to the south and if clear, you will see it.  Best to plan your location as some locations are a lot better than others both on the Arena Field and to the north of the field between the main building and where the rv'ers set up.

Barry Simon