By Matthew Johnson

April is a wonderful month for naked-eye viewing of the celestial sphere. April’s full moon, the pink moon, occurs April 7. The moon at this time is at perigee (closest to Earth in its orbit), thus this moon will be called a “super moon” by the media since it will appear larger than all the other full moons that follow for the year 2020. 

Although a full moon presents the best phase for naked-eye viewing, it is the least favorable time for viewing with binoculars or a telescope. When the moon is at full phase the sun’s light illuminating it is almost directly in line with all the moon’s features, causing the basins, craters and mountains of the moon to appear shadowless and flat when viewed with the enhancement of optical aids. This is best understood by actually viewing the moon with binoculars or a scope when it is full and then viewing it again at any other time. The distinction is remarkable and well worth experiencing.

Dusk: Venus is the most stunning object in the heavens in April. The planet continues to move upwards in the western sky, reaching its highest altitude at sunset. It will be brighter this month than it will be again for the next eight years. 

The Pleiades or Seven Sisters are one of the most beautiful naked-eye open clusters of stars. They form part of the constellation Taurus. This cluster will be easy to find on the night of April 3 at 9 p.m., as Venus’s orbit will place it within, or more accurately in front of, the Pleiades cluster. This is a magnificent naked-eye conjunction of planet and constellation that will not occur again until 2028. 

Dawn: The trio of planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars will appear just before dawn during the first half of the month. Jupiter will rise about three and a half hours before dawn, followed an hour later by Saturn, then Mars. 

Meteors: The night of April 21-22 is a perfect night for the Lyrid meteor shower. It will be a moonless evening, and the shower is estimated to yield some 20 to 25 meteors per hour. The Lyrids are pieces of dust and rock left over from Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1), which orbits the sun every 415 years. Earth crosses the path of the comet’s debris trail at approximately 165,000 km/hr, and at this speed the particles are ionizied by collisions with the molecules in our atmosphere creating shooting stars.