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By Mike Vergara, (951) 461-2889 Ah, April. The evenings are warming up, although they are getting shorter. April's full moon is on the 26 and is known as the "Full Pink Moon". No, it will not be pink in color. Pink refers to the color of the springtime flower called "moss pink", or "Creeping Phlox". This moon has also been known as the "Sprouting Grass Moon", the "Egg Moon", and the "Fish Moon". This month Mars is the only visible planet, heading off to the west. Next time you look at Mars, think about the fact that we just landed another rover up there, and this one includes a helicopter/drone named Ingenuity. The helicopter will be used to test the possibility of flight in the thin Martian atmosphere. We'll have some visible ISS passes in early April. April 3 it will peak in the northeast at 9:03pm, and on April 6 at 8:18pm in the southwest. After mid-April the passes will be in the very early morning. There will be meteors, too! The "Lyrids" meteor shower will run from April 16 to 25, peaking on April 22, sometime after midnight. It's called the Lyrids because the meteors seem to be coming from the constellation Lyra. The Lyrids are among the oldest of known meteor showers. Records of this shower go back around 2,700 years. Many of the Lyrid meteors leave persistent trains. A meteor train is an ionized gas trail that glows for a few seconds after a meteor has passed. Last month, I mentioned "star-hopping", the practice of using one star (or stars) to find another. Here's an example you can do this month. Find the Big Dipper. It's the most visible part of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. Locate the two stars of the dipper's bowl away from the handle. Got it? Now draw an imaginary line up from the bowl and extend it into the sky. The next bright star on that line is Polaris, the North Star. Congratulations! You just star-hopped! Want another one? Look at the handle of the dipper. The last three stars form an arc in the sky. Follow that arc, curving around until you hit a bright star. You have just "followed the arc to Arcturus". Visit http://skymaps.com/index.html to print your own map of the sky for the month. For information about satellites or the ISS, go to https://heavens-above.com. Clear skies! COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD 20 | THE COLONY NEWS | APRIL 2021 | April Sky April Sky