The Night Sky This Month – April 2025
(Looking for last month’s ‘Night Sky’? Find it at this link…)
As April arrives, the brilliant constellations Taurus, Orion, and Canis Major fade in the west after sunset and are on their way out for the year. The northern spring constellations Ursa Major, Leo, Virgo, and Coma Berenices swing into view along with vast fields of faint galaxies accessible to backyard telescopes (and even tiny smart telescopes). The first major meteor shower since early January, the Lyrids, gets underway in the latter half of the month. And Venus, Saturn, and Mercury arrive in the morning sky as Jupiter and Mars linger in the evening. Here’s what to see in the night sky this month…
1 April 2025. Look westward to see Jupiter just over a degree from the waxing crescent Moon. The grand planet is moving slowly towards the setting Sun and its viewing window is closing for the year, but it’s still big and bright enough for pleasant observing in binoculars or a telescope. The pair lies not far from the Pleiades star cluster. The planet has faded to magnitude -2.1, still brighter than any star, and spans about 36” in a telescope.
5 April. First Quarter Moon, 02:15 UT
5 April. Look for the Moon and Mars just east of Castor and Pollux in Gemini. The four form a westward pointing arrow about 10° long with Castor at the tip. Mars is moving away from Earth now and reaches aphelion on the 17th. It shines at magnitude +0.5 with an apparent size of 8” and continues to shrink, revealing scant detail in a telescope.
13 April. Full Moon, 00:22 UT (the full ‘Pink Moon’). This is the smallest full Moon of the year – a mini-moon, as it were. It lies at a distance of 406,295 km. It appears 14% smaller than a so-called ‘super moon’.
12 April. The full Moon draws close to the bright star Spica in the constellation Virgo. Observers in most of South America see the Moon pass in front of the star. More details on timing for various locations at this link.
17 April. Scorpius and its lucida Antares rise low in the southeast before dawn, and tonight the waning gibbous Moon follows behind by about 4°.
19 April. The waning gibbous Moon continues its path eastward and now lies embedded in the Teapot asterism of the constellation Sagittarius.
21 April. Last Quarter Moon, 01:38 UT
21-22 April. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks in the early-morning hours. This is the first significant meteor shower since the Quadrantids in early January. The Lyrids display some 15-20 meteors per hour in good conditions and trace their apparent paths back to a point between the constellations Hercules and Lyra, both of which rise in the east around midnight. The last-quarter Moon only slightly hinders viewing this year. The Lyrids arise as the Earth passes through the path of Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1). While the shower peaks tonight, it runs from April 14-30, approximately. You can see the Lyrids anywhere in the sky – just look up.
24-25 April. Rise early, before sunrise, and look east to see Venus, Saturn, and a thin crescent Moon low in the eastern sky. After inferior conjunction last month, Venus now enters the morning sky at a brilliant magnitude -4.5. Saturn has also newly emerged in the morning sky and shines at magnitude +1.2. The trio form an isosceles triangle on the 25th. If you can see right to the horizon, look for Mercury below and to the east of the Moon. on the 25th. While it’s bright at magnitude +0.3, it lies just a few degrees above the horizon and requires very clear sky to see in the northern hemisphere. Southern-hemisphere observers get a much better view of Mercury this month as it appears well above the horizon.
27 April. New Moon, 19:31 UT. This is the largest ‘new Moon’ of the year, but of course, you can’t see it. Although you can see the larger-than-average slender crescent in the day or two just before and after new moon.
28 April. A one-day old Moon, extremely thin, emerges about 5º from the Pleiades at dusk in the western sky.
30 April. Still a thin crescent, the Moon lies about 7° from Jupiter low in the west after sunset, much like it did at the beginning of the month.