April 29
The Ancient Pole
Sun Position
The Sun is in Taurus near +23° declination. Northern hemisphere days are very long; southern hemisphere is midway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, with long, dark nights.
Sky Highlight
The eta Aquariids are accelerating toward their May 5–6 peak. Southern hemisphere observers under dark skies may now be seeing 15 to 20 meteors per hour before dawn; northern observers at mid-latitudes will see fewer, with the radiant barely clearing the horizon before the sky brightens. These are debris from Halley's Comet.
Deep Sky Object
M102, likely NGC 5866, lenticular galaxy in Draco, about 50 million light-years. M102's identity was debated for two centuries; the most widely accepted identification is NGC 5866, a nearly edge-on lenticular galaxy with a prominent dust lane, sometimes called the Spindle Galaxy. It is visible in medium telescopes and well placed in Draco for late-April observation from northern mid-latitudes.
Featured Star
Kochab (β UMi) again tonight, 130.9 light-years, an orange K4III giant. Its era as a pole star (roughly 1500 BCE to 500 CE) covered the rise and fall of classical Greek civilization and most of the Roman Empire; every Mediterranean navigator of that era used Kochab or the region near it to find north. Today it circles the pole at 16°, part of the Little Dipper's bowl.
Around This Date
- April 29, 1985Space Shuttle Challenger launched on STS-51-B carrying Spacelab 3, a fully equipped scientific laboratory in the cargo bay, demonstrating the shuttle's utility as a platform for microgravity research.
- April 27, 1972Apollo 16's lunar module Orion lifted off from the Descartes Highlands after 71 hours on the surface, beginning the return journey and ending the fifth crewed lunar landing.
Kochab pointed north for navigators through two thousand years of history and has been quietly stepping away from the pole ever since.