Monday April 13th the 20-day old waning gibbous Moon crosses the plane of the ecliptic moving south. This is known as the descending node, one of two intersections the Moon’s orbital path (dark green line) has with the ecliptic.
On the date of the descending node the waning gibbous Moon will be above the southern horizon at sunrise and will be near the eastern edge of the Milky Way. However the Moon’s reflected light dims out the glow of the Milky Way. To the east are 4 of the visible planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and just rising above the horizon the innermost planet Mercury. Dwarf Planet Ceres, and Neptune are also part of the ecliptic line-up but both have apparent magnitudes too dim to be naked-eye visible.
For this orbit the waning gibbous Moon has also reached its southernmost distance south from the celestial equator of 23.8o.
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.
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