For April 2026, the full (Egg) moon occurs on April 1. The last quarter moon occurs on April 9. The new moon occurs on April 17. The “young” waxing crescent moon sits to the lower right of brilliant Venus on April 18, and above it and the Pleaides cluster (great photo op) on April 19. The almost half-lit moon sits above Jupiter on April 22. On Astronomy Day, April 25, we can observe the waxing gibbous moon occult the bright star Regulus in Leo. For Pensacola, the moon’s dark eastern limb covers the star at 7:15 p.m., just before local sunset. The moon’s orbital motion carries it in front of Regulus for over an hour, to reveal it coming out above mare Crisium on the moon’s western lit limb at 8:38 p.m. This is a great event for binocular and telescope observers. Times will vary with time zone and location, but all of the U.S. can observe this event. The Full Moon, the Rose Moon, will occur on May 1.
Mercury is at its greatest elongation in the dawn sky on April 3, and is lost in the sun’s glare by midmonth. It is joined by Mars on April 16, but you will need binoculars to catch them in the dawn, 30 minutes before sunrise. Venus by contrast, is well up in the SW sky at dusk, dominating the western sky. It may be joined by a briefly bright sungrazing comet, C/2026 A1 (MAPS) from April 4-10th, but how bright this comet can get, or if it can even survive its close pass by the Sun days earlier, are still to be determined. So stay tuned to our EAAA Facebook page and spaceweather.com for updates. As just noted, Mars is just returning to the dawn sky by month’s end. Jupiter, however, is well placed for evening observing overhead in Gemini. Saturn, alas, is in superior conjunction, behind the Sun all month.
For a detailed map of northern hemisphere skies, about March 30th, visit skymaps.com.
Yellow Capella, a giant star the same temperature and color as our much smaller Sun, dominates the northwestern sky. Several nice binocular Messier open clusters are found in the winter Milky Way here. East of Auriga, the twins, Castor and Pollux, highlight the Gemini. Jupiter currently sits just south of the pair, and our deep sky highlight for the month, the fine open cluster M-35, sits at the western foot of the twins. This shot with my See Star S 50. Note a comparable cluster, but three times more distant, in another arm of our Galaxy, is also seen!
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 western 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 eight light-years, Sirius is the closest star we can easily see here. The second brightest, Canopus, may still be just above the SW horizon as twilight deepens.
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.
A very different type of star cluster lies just east of Arcturus, easily found with binoculars. M-3 is one of the nicest globular clusters, far richer and more compact than open clusters like M-35. Due to their great gravity (a half million or so solar masses!), they are strongly gravitationally bound, and hence date back to the early days of creation, with ages of more than ten billion years. One of the closer globulars, M-3, is still 35,000 light-years distant. By contrast, the core of our Milky Way is 10,000 light-years closer! Over 100 of these star balls lie clustered around the Galactic Core in Sagittarius, and soon dozens more will be rising in the eastern evening sky. EAAA member Ron Fairbanks took this shot. Note how the brightest stars of this aging cluster are yellow, not blue.
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, 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 that 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.
We return to Pensacola Beach Pavilion for our Casino Beach gazes at sunset on these weekends: April 24-25, and follow on these first quarter moon weekends: May 22-23, June 19-20, July 24-25, August 14-15 (club picnic), September 18-19, and end on October 16-17, 2026. These are fine public gazes with free parking, telescope viewing, sky interpretation, star charts, and astrophotography with your smartphones.
We will host a deep sky gaze at Big Lagoon State Park west of Pensacola for Saturday, April 11. We will update with new gaze dates next month. The Park charges a $6. Check in at 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 3. Get your tickets here.
Our next EAAA club meeting will be May 1 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 website or 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.
