Monthly Night Sky information provided by Chris Vaughan (@Astrogeoguy) at Starry Night Education (@StarryNightEdu).
After 24 hours of additional eastward orbital motion, the very slim crescent of the old moon will shine within a triangle composed of three planets before sunrise on Friday morning, April 25. Locate brilliant Venus and then look for the moon about a binoculars’ field of view (orange circle) to its lower left. Less bright […]
On Sunday, April 27, Venus will reach its greatest illuminated extent for the current morning apparition. In a telescope (inset), the planet will show a surprisingly slender, 26%-illuminated, waxing crescent phase on a large apparent disk size of 39 arc-seconds. Even with a less than fully-illuminated disk, Venus’ distance from Earth of only 0.432 Astronomical […]
The moon will reach its new phase on Sunday, April 27 at 3:31 p.m. EDT or 12:31 p.m. PDT or 19:31 GMT. At that time our natural satellite will be located in Aries and 3.25 degrees north of the sun. While new, the moon is travelling between Earth and the sun. Since sunlight can only […]
In the eastern sky before dawn in late April, the orbital motion of the brilliant planet Venus will be carrying it past 240 times fainter Saturn. On the mornings before Monday, April 28, Saturn will be positioned several finger widths below (or 3.6 degrees to the celestial south of) Venus, allowing the two planets to […]
In the western sky after dusk on Tuesday, April 29, the waxing crescent moon will shine prettily a fist’s diameter to the lower right (or 11 degrees to the celestial northwest) of Jupiter. On the following evening, April 30, the moon will climb to shine a palm’s width to Venus’ upper right. The moon’s nightly […]