A comet discovered about 150 years ago has left traces of its existence for us to see for thousands of years. Get ready for the April Lyrid meteor shower.

And when you see the sun or moon rise or set, you're seeing it over the horizon.

The beliefs we cling to most are the ones we convince ourselves of. Percival Lowell's conclusions about canals on Mars and Venus are examples. What did he really see?

Many people, even some who like astronomy, do something that's harmful to it. Our modern lifestyles require lighting at night. But do we really need so many lights on in so many places casting so much light where it's not useful? Light pollution keeps us from enjoying the night sky--a most wondrous natural resource above us.

And we don't talk about a full Venus or a first quarter Venus. But somewhat like the moon, the planet has phases.

Venus is an evening object again, and Mercury will join it. But both are horizon huggers. Mars is easier to see as it moves from Taurus to the feet of Gemini. Saturn and Jupiter are getting easier to see in the morning. If you're in the right place on April 2nd, you can see Jupiter pass right in front of a star. The April Lyrids meteor shower peaks this month. There's a so-called supermoon. And Uranus goes into conjunction with the sun. Also, a little extra information about the word asteroid. Maybe we should say planetoid.

If someone mentions the planet Vulcan now, you probably think of the fictional world that's home to Mr. Spock on Star Trek. But there was a time when some astronomers believed there was a real planet they called Vulcan orbiting our sun.

You never hear much about the constellation Leo Minor. 

A legend claims you can balance an egg on its end only on the equinox.

And have you noticed there are no green stars?

Every once in a while, you hear about something from space that might crash into the earth. It happens just often enough to make some of us worry about it.

This month, a cluster of planets rises shortly before the sun, the southern hemisphere gets a good view of Mercury, Mars passes by the Pleiades, Venus is atypically invisible, the asteroid Vesta is at opposition, and Earth goes through an equinox.

At the end of February 1959, the U.S. government told the world it had launched a satellite that made some measurements, transmitted some measurement data, and then shut down as planned. Documents declassified in 1995 reveal the satellite malfunctioned shortly after launch and apparently crashed. Other formerly secret materials, including a CIA film, reveal that the engineers stayed busy solving problem after problem just learning how to get a satellite up and then use it to replace spy planes.

One of the accidental discoveries that spawned the field of radio astronomy stayed secret for a few years. There was a war going on. And the enemy could have used the newfound astronomical knowledge for a military advantage.