April’s Astronomy Events

The April sky is not as active as other months, however we still have a few interesting things to observe such as the daytime Aretids meteor shower, which peaks on June 7th and can be seen best in the dark hour before dawn.  We can also observe the Bootids meteor shower, which peaks on June 27th.  This month features the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year, which takes place on June 20th.

All images are from SkySafari 6 and can be clicked on for a full screen version.

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01 – Find the moon knocking on the door on the Pleiades with Jupiter not too far away. This is the view at 8pm.

02 – One night later and we’ll see the moon playing a closer visit to the largest planet in the solar system.

05 – At 9pm, we’ll see the moon visit the Red Planet.

12 – Some viewers in the US will see one of the brightest stars, Spica, in Virgo, be eclipsed by the moon. The rest of us will see them very close together. The star chart below shows the view from mid-America at 9pm.

21-22 – No moon this time, thankfully, because it’s the peak night for this year’s Lyrid meteor shower. This is the view at 3am.

24 – This one’s harder to catch, not least because it’s at 6am. Look east before dawn to see a thin crescent moon with Venus and Saturn nearby. You might even be lucky enough to glimpse Mercury… but probably not.