Constellations and Astronomical Events Visible in April 2025!

Happy April! It looks like the start of the month will be full of rain, so hopefully the storms will stop at night to give us all a chance to see the sky. This month starts with sunrise around 7:15 am and sunset at 7:56 pm. By the end of the month we’ll see sunrise as early as 6:30 am and sunset as late as 8:25 pm.

Unfortunately there isn’t a lunar eclipse this month, but I hope everyone had the chance to see one in March! The full moon this month will be on April 12th and the new moon will be on April 27th. If you’re hoping to see the inner planets this month then I hope you’re ready to wake up extra early. Both Mercury and Venus will be rising just before the Sun this month, making their best time for viewing between 6:00 am and 7:00 am. Mercury will also be at its greatest western elongation on April 21st, so make sure you set your alarm early that day and look above the eastern horizon around 6:00 am. In the image below you can see what the eastern horizon will look like this month.

Mars will be visible high in the sky just after sunset this month. It will start the month appearing in the constellation of Gemini and drift over towards Cancer by the end of the month. This drift we see in the planets is actually how they got their name. The word planet comes directly from the Greek word meaning wanderer. This is because ancient Greeks noticed that there were some “stars” that appeared to move across the sky instead of staying in one fixed point. This wandering behavior is how they were named! Planets appear to do this because of how close they are to the Earth compared to the stars in our sky. Everything we see is moving, but the planets appear to move much faster due to their proximity to Earth. You can see this for yourself the next time you are driving down a highway. You’ll see that the street lights close to you are flying past you, but the trees further away are moving slowly. If you were to look up at the clouds in the sky you would see that they appear to be almost stationary compared to the street lights or trees.

Moving back to the rest of the solar system, Jupiter will also be visible this month a little closer to the western horizon than Mars. Jupiter will also be visible just after sunset, but it will be in the constellation Taurus for the whole month. Saturn is back in the sky! Saturn will be visible just before sunrise along with Venus and Mercury. Saturn is slowly moving away from the Sun so it’ll be easier to see it by the end of the month. Maybe when you’re up for Mercury’s greatest western elongation, you’ll see Saturn and Venus too. 

This month will be a great chance to see a meteor shower. On the night of April 22nd and the morning of April 23rd, the Lyrids meteor shower will reach its peak. This meteor shower is caused by debris left behind by Comet Thatcher, first discovered in 1861. Unfortunately, no one alive today will be able to see it as the comet has an orbit around the Sun of roughly 415, so it won’t be seen again until 2283. In the meantime though we can appreciate the debris it left behind. This shower produces about 20 meteors per hour when it peaks. Even better during most of the night the moon will be below the horizon and when it does rise it will only be a crescent, so you can expect dark skies perfect for viewing this meteor shower. Seen in the picture below, the meteors will radiate from the constellation Lyra which will rise about the northeastern horizon around 10:00 pm rising higher and higher throughout the night.

Sources:

• https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/columbus?month=1
• http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-calendar-2024.html
• https://in-the-sky.org/newscal.php?month=2&year=2025&maxdiff=7#datesel
• https://stellarium-web.org/

Image Credit:

• Eastern horizon diagram: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/mercury-before-sunrise-greatest-elongation-west/
• Lyrids Meteor Shower: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-lyrid-meteor-shower/