TUNGSTEN VALLEY - April marks our annual atmospheric carbon dioxide update. CO2, with an assist from methane, is what’s shredding our climate, including blowing up the Peak to Peak area’s fire danger and choking our local air with unhealthful wildfire smoke.

World-standard CO2 data come from NOAA’s Mauna Loa observatory. The level is increasing and the rate of increase is accelerating.

Rather than caring about us and helping us, the American people, by addressing the problem (fossil fuel burning), the current administration instead wants to stop the bad news from being reported. Their plan is to kill the messenger by eliminating NOAA and putting the agency’s people, hard-working, dedicated Americans who serve America, onto the street.

And, while they’re at it, get rid of the National Weather Service. More precisely, sell-off the American people’s treasured NWS networks and assets, like weather radars, to oligarchs, like what happened to Russia’s national assets when the Soviet Union folded. Weather forecasting and alerts will become a business opportunity for billionaires, at our expense.

You’ll get pop-up ads on your phone, like, “Want to Get Tornado & Hurricane Warnings??? Subscribe to the United America Storms Rip-N-Twist Severe Weather App for just $19.99/month!” You’ll need to buy an unlock code to get through the paywall for what used to be the taxpayers’ NOAA Weather Radio broadcast.

Think that’s a joke? Check the status of NWS’ Radar Operations Center (ROC) in Norman, Oklahoma. That’s where national radar-network data are fused, analyzed, and distributed to all Americans. A clandestine team of Muskrats is terminating the property’s lease, along with other NWS leases across the country. That’s the preparation for gutting the agency and selling it off.

So, enjoy this month’s curve before it becomes classified information. Then you will only be able to see it if you join an unauthorized phone-text group with top government officials.

Here at The Mountain-Ear, we are going to continue reporting on climate issues for the Peak to Peak area. Because our readers want it and need it. And because ignoring a bad tooth doesn’t make it go away; an untreated tooth just rots until it has to be pulled. We’re starting a brief, 150-word Peak to Peak Climate column that will run every third Thursday of the month. Each update will provide information that the oligarchs don’t want you to know, about our climate situation and what we can do about it.

April Fun Astro-Fact: It takes eight minutes for the sun’s light to reach the earth, eighty minutes to reach Saturn, and four hours to reach Neptune.

In April Skies:

Solar Max Ramp-Up: The sun’s 11-year sunspot cycle peaks in July; it’s climbing now. The next few months are your best opportunity to see sunspots. For safe viewing: https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/observing-the-sun/.

The sun begins the month in Pisces, entering Aries on April 19. At mid-month, days and nights are 13 and 11 hours long, respectively. On April 15, solar time equals clock time; in Nederland the sun will be due south at 12:02 p.m. Standard Time (1:02 p.m. Daylight Saving Time).

The moon’s dates are: Last Quarter April 4; Full (Pink Moon; Passover and Paschal (PAS-k’l) Moon) April 12; Third Quarter April 20; New April 27. This year, Western and Eastern churches celebrate Easter on the same Sunday, April 20.

April Meteor Showers: Lyrids (parent, Comet Thatcher) and Pi Puppids (parent, Comet Grigg-Skjellerup) peak together on April 23-24. They are visible in Nederland between 10 p.m. to sunrise.

Best Sky Viewing Nights (Minimal Moon): April 1-3 and 21-30.

Sunset (Mid-Month): Leo with red Regulus is in the southeast, with the Big Dipper in the northeast. Procyon (Rises Before the Dog) is due south. Sirius (The Dog) chases after Orion in the southwest.

Midnight (Mid-Month): Vega, Deneb and Altair form the Navigator’s Triangle low in the east to northeast. Follow the Big Dipper’s arm, arcing to Arcturus and then on to Spica. Gemini is low in the west.

Sunrise (Mid-Month): The Navigator’s Triangle is overhead. Scorpius with bright red Antares is prominent in the southwest. Spica, in Virgo, sets in the southwest.

Mercury, in Aquarius, is difficult to spot in the eastern sky just before sunrise.

Venus, in Aquarius, emerges from the sun, low in the eastern morning sky after mid-month.

Mars, in Cancer, is high in the sky at sunset, moving easterly (prograde), setting at 3 a.m. 

Jupiter, in Taurus, is high in the sky at sunset, halfway between Aldebaran and Elnath. It sets at midnight.

Saturn, in Aquarius, is near Venus in the eastern sky at sunrise after mid-month. Dimmer than Venus, it will be hard to spot.

Notable Space Missions: NASA’s Lucy mission will fly by asteroid 52246 on April 20; look for some good pictures. Blue Origin’s New Shepard crewed capsule might fly on its large new booster from a West Texas launch pad around April 14, with six people on board.

Frank Sanders, a spectrum scientist, takes astronomy-related inquiries at backyardastronomy1@gmail.com.