Daniel Fanti, member of the Trelew Friends of Astronomy Foundation, tells us what the most important astronomical events are this week.

The moon reaches 50% of its illumination on Wednesday the 29th, located in what we call quarter crescentit will be visible from sunset until after midnight. On Tuesday 28 we will be able to see the moon very close to Mars, the red planet. This conjunction will be visible from sunset until almost midnight.

Already in autumn we begin to see other constellations in the sky, such as the Leo Constellationwith its most important star Regulus, precisely on Saturday April 1, the moon will be very close to this star, it can be seen from sunset until after 3 am.

Autumn is also a very suitable time to observe the Eta Carina Nebula, which is between the Southern Cross and the False Cross. To encounter the cruz del sur, ya hemos mencionado que est un conjunto de 4 estrellas muy brilliants, ordered en un palo mayor y un palo menor, como cualquier cruz, y lineadas al palo menor 2 estrellas igual o más brilliantes, que son los punteros of the Cross. From there, we look for another group of 4 stars in its vicinity with a similar configuration, but with less luminosity, it is the false cross, between these 2 asterisms we find a cloud called Eta Carina, because it is in the constellation Carina. You need to get away from the city lights to observe these wonders of the night sky.

Exciting news in NASA’s Artemis mission which will bring humans back to the moon, with the first woman to set foot on our satellite and in sight of a more permanent and sustainable presence on the lunar surface. A few days ago the suit that the astronauts who will set foot on the lunar soil will use was presented; It was designed by the AXIOM company, it is much lighter and more flexible than the previous ones and equipped with state-of-the-art technology for our time. On Monday April 3, NASA will announce the names of the astronauts who will make up the Artemis 2 mission scheduled for the end of 2024, there will be 3 North Americans and one from the Canadian space agency.

On Friday, March 31, there will be a speak with observation at the Trelew Astronomical Center, where they will talk about the moon, its most important features and past and future missions. After the lecture, the moon and another interesting object in the sky can be observed through the telescopes.