Eye On The Night Sky For Thursday, April 2

0:00I'm Mark Breen. Welcome to Night Sky for Thursday, April 2. The moon rises almost exactly an hour after sunset at 8.20 this evening with the last of the twilight fading in the west and Venus low but bright above the horizon. Both of these beacons should be easy to find, as well as one of their known associates, the spectacular Jupiter, high in the southwest at the same time, a location very similar to the sun on the summer solstice its highest placement above the horizon. If you look above Jupiter, even higher, two stars might explain Jupiter's lofty position. Two moderately bright stars, very similar to each other and relatively close, you're looking at the twins of Gemini, home to the sun on the summer solstice. The twins in mythology are Pollux and Caster, twins' sons of Zeus, though by different mothers, which begs explanation when we have more time. In as much as they've been known as the twins much earlier than the Greeks, they aren't

1:01really identical. Pollux on the left is brighter than his brother Caster on the right. Tomorrow our astronomical connection to Easter on Night Sky. Night Sky is a production of Vermont Public and the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium.