Current Events (December '07 - April '08)
Planets
Mercury is grouped tightly with Venus and Uranus in the pre-dawn sky at the end of March. You'll need a clear eastern horzon and some binoculars to see it though since they're all within 20° of the Sun. Mercury will show up in the evening skies again in very early May, but then you'll have to try finding it in the long twilight of late spring. NASA's Messenger spacecraft had its first Mercury flyby on January 14, but the data and results are embargoed for 6 months. Check out some preliminary information at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/.
Venus continues to be a brilliant morning morning star well into April, but like Mercury, you'll need a good clear eastern horizon to see it. By early May it's too close to the Sun for safe observing. Look for it to return to the evening skies in late July, with easy visiblility begining n September. The ESA Venus express continues sending back images and making news. Find out more at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/index.html
Mars is high in the SW at the end of March at 10 PM, and will be visible, but dim for the rest of summer. Lok far Mars and Saturn to be less than a degree apart July 9 - 11.
The rovers continue to operate, at more than 1400 days past "warranty". Mars Odyssey also continues to operate at well past its expected lifetime, and the latest NASA orbiter mission, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is sending back some amazingly detailed images (if you haven't seen them, you should look for the avalanches and the Earth-Moon image it took!). Phoenix, the next lander mission is scheduled for landing on May 25. Catch up with all the NASA Mars activity at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/. ESA's Mars Express also continues to send back some amazing images. Be sure to check out the animations at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html.
Jupiter reaches opposition in July 9. Until then, it makes a great morning planet, rising earlier and earlier: around 5 AM in late March, 3 AM in early May,and 1 AM in early June. Look for the last quarter moon and Jupiter to be only 5º apart on March 30, and march your calendars for a crescent moon only 2.5º from Jupiter on November 3rd.
The four major moons are also easy to spot with a small telescope, and if your skies are dark enough and you've got about a 6" 'scope, you can even see them pass in front or behind the planet. There's a neat javascript program to tell you which moon is which at http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/article_830_1.asp#.
Saturn is the jewel of the spring evening skies. It'll be visible in the evening through the end of June, but its rings are slowly disappearing. To see the planet, head to one of the local open houses, or check out the Saturn observation campain.
Cassini continues its history-making exploration of the planet, rings and moons. http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm.
Uranus is only visible in the darkest skies, and only if you know exactly where to look. It's in the pre-dawn sky for most of the spring and sumer, but it doesn't really come out of the twilight until June.
Neptune is invisible without a telescope, but it's just west of its neighbor Uranus. It spends the spring in Capricorn, setting almost with the Sun in December. Look for it in the pre-dawn skies in April, but it won't really be easy until June.
Pluto is hard to find even with a telescope, and it is in Sagittarius this year, making summer the best time to try and observe it. Look for it in the early morning in March, and all night in August.
In late Aug. 2006, the IAU officially demoted Pluto, decreasing the number of planets in the solar system to 8. However, this does make Pluto the first of a new class of objects, the ice dwarfs. The official resolution is at http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0602/index.html. The first mission to this planet is on its way. New Horizons flew by Jupiter in Feb 2007 on its way to its rendezvous with Pluto in July of 2015. http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/.
Moon
Full: Apr 20, May 19, June 18, July 18, Aug 16, Sept 16
New: Apr 5, May 5, June 3, July 2, Aug 1, Aug 30
Dates are for local time. A total solar eclipse will be visible from parts of Asia, Canada and Greenland on Aug 1. A partial lunar eclipse will be visble from most of Europe and Africa and the Atlantic on Aug 16.
Asteroids
Asteroids Daphne, Astrea and Iris are in Virgo through the end of May, and all are around a magnitude 9. They all dim to magnitudes greater than 10 by the end of June.
Vesta returns to morinng skies in June. It's magnitude 6 - 8 in Cetus. Slightly dimmer Metis is just north of Vesta, and starts retrograde in June.
Eunomia moves from Gemini into Cancer in May, so it'll be visible in the evening skies until mid May. At magnitude 10, you'll need a good char and a telescope to find it.
Ceres is a magnitude 76.2 in Tarus, visible in early evening in March and early April.
Flora never makes it brighter than 8.6. It's also in Tarus, so it'll disappear quickly from our evening skies.
Solar Observing and Comets
We should be coming out of a solar minimum, so after a couple months of almost no activity, things should be picking up again (but I've been saying that for months now...). Please be sure to use proper filters for solar observing. A WELDING MASK IS NOT ENOUGH! As a general rule, if you look though the filter at anything other than the sun (e.g. a white wall, a spot light, etc) and you can see something, the filter isn't good enough. You want a filter with LESS THAN 0.5% transmission.
Solar activity can change on an almost hourly basis, and the best comets are usually the ones that were just discovered. So if you're interested in these things, you should check out spaceweather.com for the latest information.
Meteor Showers
On a good, dark, clear, moonless night you might catch around 7 meteors per hour. A meteor shower is when you can expect more than that and all in the same area. Meteor showers are named for the constellation the meteors appear to come from. For example, meteors in the well known Perseids appear to come out of the constellation Perseus. The best time to watch the shower is the best combination of: 1) after local midnight (that's about 1:30 AM EDT in Ann Arbor) and before morning twilight (check your favorite weather site), 2) when the constellation is highest, and 3) when Earth hits the densest part of the debris stream. Number 3 is best checked with a website like the American Meteor Society or a magazine like Sky & Telescope or Astronomy. Matching 1 and 2 on the date of the peak is usually the easiest thing to do.
The best spring/summer meteor showers are the Lyrids (peaking April 23), Eta Aquarids (May 5) and the well known Perseids (Aug 11)
Don't have a dark site? Don't want to get up at 3 in the morning for 2 or 3 shooting stars? How about listening to the meteors? Tune an FM radio to a station you don't quite get in, so you mostly hear static with the occasional distinguishable bit of programming. You'll hear an occasional pop, crackle or whistle lasting a second or more in the static - that's the meteors ionizing an envelope of air as it streaks through the atmosphere! For more information on this, check out http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast28jun99_1.htm or http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/nasameteorradar.html.