Stargazing this week

New Moon, Dark Skies and Mars
Up above the 48th parallel, the nights are considerably shorter than they were just a few weeks ago. Shorter nights means less room for stars to roam and less time for us to look for them. But there’s still plenty to see. Particularly this week - with the new moon on Sunday - we'll have dark skies to maximize this precious observation time.

Mars is out this week to the west this week, and will be overtaken by the young crescent moon sometime on Saturday, April 17th. That should make the red planet easy to spot after sunset as next weekend begins.

Lookout For Gemini
The constellations that were familiar all winter: Orion the hunter, Taurus the bull and Canis the dog are all low in the sky now, and set early, which makes for a great excuse to explore other parts of the sky.

This week, why not look for Gemini? In the northern hemisphere anyway, the twin constellation sits just above Betelgeuse - shoulder star to Orion’s raised arm. The twins are standing at an angle, holding hands, with there feet along the axis of the Milky Way.

Western sky from the Methow via Stellarium Web

The Christmas Tree Cluster
Since we’re looking to the West, this week’s challenge is to spot the Christmas Tree Cluster, which lies just between Gemini and Orion. The Christmas Tree Cluster is a star forming region of our galaxy named after its distinct, triangular shape. While you can see it without aid in dark sky conditions, binoculars will really make those young stars pop! The Christmas Tree cluster is a broad area of the galaxy with a lot of interesting features, include the Cone Nebula.

The Christmas Tree Cluster : ESO/ESA

The Cone Nebula (ESO)