For April 2025, the waxing crescent moon passes just north of Jupiter on April 2. On April 4, the first quarter moon passes just above Mars. The full moon, the Egg Moon, is on April 12. The moon is in its last quarter on April 20. At dawn on April 24, the waning crescent moon lies just to the left of bright Venus, and below it, fainter Saturn; it lies to the right of the pair the following dawn and just to the upper right of Mercury near the horizon. The new moon is on April 27, and on the 30th, the waxing crescent again passes by bright Jupiter at dusk.
At the start of March, Mercury and Venus lay in the west after sunset. Now both have passed between us and the Sun into the dawn sky. Venus is brilliant in the dawn as April begins, just north of much fainter Saturn. Venus is at its brightest on April 27. Mercury joins the pair at the month’s end.
Still in the evening sky, Jupiter is well up in the west after sunset as April begins but much lower by the month’s end. Mars is higher in the sky, in Gemini, and will stick around in the evening sky until the end of summer.
For a detailed map of northern hemisphere skies, visit skymaps.com website and download the map for April.
Yellow Capella, a giant star the same temperature and color as our much smaller Sun, dominates the northwestern sky. It is part of the pentagon of stars making up Auriga, the Charioteer (think Ben Hur). Several nice binocular Messier open clusters are found in the winter Milky Way here. East of Auriga, the twins, Castor and Pollux, highlight Gemini. South of Gemini, Orion is the most familiar winter constellation, dominating the southern sky at dusk. The reddish supergiant Betelguese marks his eastern shoulder, while blue-white supergiant Rigel stands opposite on his west knee. Just south of the belt, hanging like a sword downward, is M-42, the Great Nebula of Orion, an outstanding binocular and telescopic stellar nursery. The bright diamond of four stars that light it up is the trapezium cluster, one of the finest sights in a telescope. In the east are the hunter’s two faithful companions, Canis major and minor. Procyon is the bright star in the little dog and rises minutes before Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. At 8 light years, Sirius is the closest star we can easily see here.
To the northeast, look for the Big Dipper rising, with the top two stars of the bowl, the pointers, giving you a line to find Polaris, the Pole Star. Look for Mizar-Alcor, a nice naked-eye double star, in the bend of the big dipper’s handle. Take the pointers at the front of the dipper’s bowl south instead to the head of Leo, looking much like the profile of the famed Sphinx. The bright star at the Lion’s heart is Regulus, the “regal star”. Now take the curved handle of the Big Dipper and follow the arc SE to bright orange Arcturus, the brightest star of the spring sky. Studies of its motion link it to the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, a companion of our Milky Way, being tidally disrupted and spilling its stars above and below the plane of the Milky Way, much like dust falling away from a decomposing comet nucleus. So this brightest star of Bootes the Bear Driver is apparently a refugee from another galaxy, but now trapped by our Galaxy’s gravity.
Now spike south to Spica, the blue-white gem in Virgo rising in the SE. Virgo is home to many galaxies as we look away from the obscuring gas and dust in the plane of the Milky Way into deep space. To the southwest of Spica is the four-sided Crow, Corvus. To the ancient Greeks, Spica was associated with Persephone, daughter of Ceres, the goddess of the harvest. She was abducted by her suitor Pluto, carried down to Hades (going to Hell for a honeymoon!) and when Jupiter worked out a compromise between the newlyweds and the angry mother-in-law, the agreement dictated Persephone come back to the earth’s surface for six months of the year, and Mama Ceres was again placated, and the crops could grow again. As you see Spica rising in the SE, it is time to “plant your peas”, and six months from now, when Spica again disappears in the sun’s glare in the SW, you need to “get your corn in the crib”….so was set our calendar of planting and harvesting in antiquity. There is indeed a rich harvest in Virgo of galaxies. Between Spica and Corvus is M-104, the famed “Sombrero."
We return to Pensacola Beach Pavilion for our Casino Beach gaze at sunset on these weekends: April 4. May 2-3, June 6-7 (none in July), August 1-2, August 29-30, and wrap them up on September 26-27. At the first quarter moon, these are fine public gazes with free parking, telescope viewing, sky interpretation, star charts, and astrophotography with your smart phones.
We have set new dates for our public gazes at Big Lagoon State Park west of Pensacola for these Saturdays: April 5, May 17, Jun 21, July 19, Aug 16, Sep 13, and Oct 11. There is a $6 admission charge for the State Park, but we have one of darkest sites on the Gulf Coast for our deep sky work. Be sure to check in the gate before it closes at sunset.
Our PSC planetarium show for April is “Night of the Titanic” at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 4. Get your tickets via Purple Pass Pensacola State College Planetarium.
Our EAAA club meeting for April will be on April 10 at 7 p.m. in room 1709 at Pensacola State College.
For more information on the Escambia Amateur Astronomers and our local star gazes for the public, visit our site. Join us on Facebook. Gaze info/requests at (850) 291-9334. You can contact our sponsor, Lauren Rogers, at lrogers@pensacolastate.edu. When clear skies permit at the Airport Approach on Langley for special help for beginners, you can contact me, Dr. Wayne Wooten, at johnwaynewooten@gmail.com. Be sure to check out some of these fun sessions in our Facebook gallery!
Here is our QR Code for club website access:
