What's Up In The Sky Now?

Jupiter and one of its moons casting a shadow on Jupiter. Photo by DMAS member Scott Dearinger, 2021

April, 2025

Our Solar System - notes by DMAS member, JoAnn Cogil

This month looks to be a fairly quiet month as night sky viewing goes. The nights are getting shorter, but thankfully warmer.

Mercury

MERCURY - on the 21st, Mercury is at its greatest western elongation, which is its highest point above the morning horizon. The little planet starts the month quite dim but will brighten as the days progress.

Venus

VENUS - Our bright neighbor moves to the morning eastern sky. On the 25th, Venus, Mercury, and Saturn all appear before sunrise, but Venus will outshine the other two, making it difficult to see Mercury & Saturn. This trio forms a right triangle, but very low on the horizon with the moon in the middle.

Earth

EARTH - April 22nd is EARTH DAY, as we recognize the continued need to take care of our beautiful planet.

Mars

MARS - Is in the evening sky, near Gemini all month. On the 5th, we find the red planet with the Moon, Castor & Pollux in the Southern twilight. This is the closest the Moon will be to any planet this month. Mars has moved near M44, the Beehive Cluster by the 30th, which provides a fun pairing to be seen.

Jupiter

JUPITER - Also in our evening sky but will set about midnight this month. On the 2nd & 30th, Jupiter can be found near the Moon.

Saturn

SATURN - Has now joined the morning sky. On the 11th, Saturn & Mercury will be side by side in the Eastern morning horizon, look just below Venus. Telescope viewing may show a fine shadow of the rings.

Uranus

URANUS - Early this month will be our last chance to see Uranus as it sits between Aries & Taurus. It will then be lost in twilight by the month’s end.

Neptune

NEPTUNE - Is quite close to the Sun this month, showing in the eastern morning sky. But if you are looking for a target challenge this month, Neptune is your planet! Venus & Saturn are easier to see near the area of Neptune though.

The Moon

4th – 1st quarter
12-13 – FULL at 7:22 PM CDT (This is a "micromoon" as the full moon coincides with apogee, when the Moon is farthest from Earth.)
20st – third quarter
27th – NEW at 2:31 PM CDT

This month’s full moon is called the “Pink Moon” by Native American tribes as it marked the appearance of the moss pink or wild ground phlox, one of the first spring flowers. It is also known as the ‘Sprouting Grass Moon’, ‘Growing Moon’ and even ‘Fish Moon’ for the Shad fish that swim upstream to spawn.

Definitions - by Bruce Mumm

Every specialty has a specific jargon to describe unique conditions in the field; Astronomy is no different. This month’s words are about distance. For measuring within our solar system we use astronomical unit. To describe distances outside of the solar system we use different terms like lightyear and parsec.

Astronomical Unit (AU) – the approximate average Sun-Earth distance used for describing distances within the solar system. One AU is 93,000,000 miles or 500 light-seconds or 8 1/3 light-minutes.
Lightyear – contrary to how it sounds, it is actually a measure of distance; that distance being the distance that light travels in one year. Light travels at a constant speed of 186,000 miles per second or 5.9 trillion miles.
Parsec – the distance at which a star would have a parallax of one second (PARallax SECond = parsec). This is also the distance from which the earth’s orbit would appear to be one second wide. This equates to a little greater than 3.26 lightyears.