Today:
High in the south this evening, as twilight fades after 8:30 PM, you’ll find the faint constellation Cancer, the Crab. While we associate Cancer the Crab with summer, due to its astrological connections, April is a wonderful time to see it. Look between the Twin stars of Gemini, and the star Regulus in Leo the Lion, for a faint, upside-down “Y” figure.
Monday:
A truly “once-in-a-lifetime” event takes place this afternoon through northern NY, VT, and NH, a total eclipse of the Sun. The Moon’s shadow races 2,300 mph through areas north of Middlebury, Barre, Barnet, Lancaster, and Milan, with totality lasting 1 to 3 minutes, longest along the eclipse’s center line from St. Albans to Highgate Falls, and then Ayer’s Cliff, QE. The next eclipse in these areas won’t happen until 2381.
Tuesday:
The steely blue star rising in the north-northeast, low but due northeast at 10:20 PM, is Vega, from the German “Wega”, and from the Arabic “Al Wika”, the “swooping or diving eagle”. In modern times it is the brightest star in Lyra, the Lyre, a harp-like instrument, home to the meteor showers over the next few nights.