This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2025 Mar 29 – Apr 5
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2025 Mar 29 – Apr 5
The constellation Coma Berenices, or Berenice’s Hair, is midway up in the eastern sky at 10 pm this week, between the tail of Leo the Lion and kite-shaped Boötes. It is the only constellation with a mythological tale based on a real person. In the fourth century BCE, King Ptolemy Soter of Egypt went to war against Assyria. His worried wife Berenice made a vow to the goddess Aphrodite that she would sacrifice her beautiful locks if he returned safely. He did return and she kept her vow against his wishes. When he visited the temple the next day he discovered the hair had been stolen, and he threatened to kill the temple priests. The court astronomer claimed that Zeus had taken the hair and placed it in the sky for all to admire, and that night he showed Ptolemy a cluster of stars.
That was the Coma Star Cluster, also called Melotte 111, which can be seen with the naked eye in rural areas and it fills the field of view in binoculars. At one time it was considered to be the tuft of Leo’s tail. The area of sky encompassed by Coma Berenices and its surrounding constellations is called the Realm of the Galaxies. The galactic North Pole lies within this constellation, perpendicular to the dusty disc of our Milky Way Galaxy. When we look in this direction the paucity of interstellar dust allows us to see deeper into space and observe other galaxies tens of millions of light years away.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:04 and sunset will occur at 7:44, giving 12 hours, 40 minutes of daylight (7:09 and 7:48 in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 6:50 and set at 7:53, giving 13 hours, 3 minutes of daylight (6:56 and 7:57 in Saint John). When the Sun rises this Saturday it will be smiling at us in a deep eclipse that lasts for another hour. Dig out the eclipse glasses that you saved last year and make sure they are not punctured or deeply scratched before using them.
The Moon is new in this Saturday and it is at first quarter next Friday. Along the way it is near the Pleiades on Tuesday, Jupiter on Wednesday and Mars next Saturday, and with it being in perigee this weekend we can expect extreme tides for a few days. Jupiter is high in the west at 9 pm, hanging above the V-shaped Hyades cluster. By the end of the week Mars will almost make a straight line with the Gemini Twins, Pollux and Castor. Venus rises an hour before sunrise this weekend, and by next weekend Mercury will precede the Sun by 40 minutes. We will have to wait another week or so for dimmer Saturn
The Saint John Astronomy Club meets in the Rockwood Park Interpretation Centre at 7 pm on April 5. Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay.