The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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March 30, 2010

April stars offer rare view of Mercury

Sighting is tied to old Mankato UFO story

Dr. Steve Kipp Minnesota State University Astronomy Information Service



The night sky this April is decorated with four bright planets. First visible are the planets Mercury and Venus.

Not many people can claim to have seen Mercury in the sky. It can be quite bright but it is devilishly difficult to see because it is always located near the sun in the sky-setting just after the sun or rising just before the sun.

But the first two weeks of April, just after sunset, brilliant Venus will be very close to Mercury marking its location above the western horizon. To see both Mercury and Venus find a reasonably dark observing location that allows you to see a clear western horizon. You may want to get out of the river valley.

On April 1 start watching the sky above the western horizon about ten minutes after sunset. Sunset on April 1 is 7:44 pm CDT and on April 15 is 8:00 pm CDT. You can’t miss seeing brilliant Venus even before the sky is completely dark.

Mercury is the fairly bright star-like object slightly below and to the right of Venus. During the first week of April Mercury and Venus will be moving closer together getting within 3 degrees (that is six apparent moon diameters) on April 4.

On April 15 a thin crescent moon will be visible above and to the right of Mercury. Don’t miss this opportunity to spot Mercury. When you find it show it to your friends!    

Observing Venus as the evening star can help shed light on a 113 year old Mankato mystery. For several nights in the middle of April, 1897 people in Mankato reported seeing in the sky what was referred to as the “airship”.

This was before airplanes but balloons were known. Today we would probably refer to the airship as a UFO. According to a story in the Mankato Daily News, the airship floated through the sky showing one very bright light and observers from the Saughpaugh Hotel saw it disappear over the bluff to the west towards New Ulm.

It has been suggested that what people saw was Venus, through moving clouds, setting in the west. This April Venus will be near the same location that it was at in April 1897. So watch for an opportunity to view Venus on a windy, partly cloudy night setting in the west. Can you see the airship cruising the sky again?  

By the time Venus sets in the west at about 9:00 pm CDT the familiar stars of the constellation Orion can be seen hanging over the western horizon.

Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, is low in the southwest. Also about this time bright, orange Mars is very high in the south. Just to the upper right of Mars are two equally bright stars in Gemini, Castor and Pollux.

On April 21 the first quarter moon will be just south of Mars. High above the eastern horizon a bright yellowish Saturn is rising. And if you look to the northeast you will see the Big Dipper standing on its handle.

The oldest known meteor shower, the Lyrids, will peak after midnight April 22. This shower occurs when the Earth crosses the orbit of comet Thatcher and sweeps up debris left behind by the comet.

Perhaps 10 meteors per hour will be seen coming from the direction of the constellation Lyra near the bright star Vega just above the eastern horizon at midnight.

The brightest supernova in recorded human history occurred April 30, 1006. This exploding star was brighter in the sky than anything but the sun and the full moon. It occurred in the constellation Lupus, the Wolf.

At our latitude it would have been just barely visible above the southern horizon.

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