Venus will move up into the morning sky to form, with Mars and Uranus, a grouping of three planets. Jupiter will rise earlier and be higher than this group.
Orbital diagrams for the inner planets December 2008 to March 2009, April to July 2009, and the outer planets for 2009.
| Date (NZDT) | Diary of Solar System Events in April 2009 for New Zealand |
| April 1 | Moon furthest north, resulting in the lowest southern hemisphere transit for the month. |
| April 2 | Moon at perigee, its closest to the Earth for the Lunar month, 370016 km. |
| April 3 | Moon at first quarter 3:34am NZDT (Apr 2, 14:34 UT). |
| April 3 | 58% lit waxing Moon 4.6° above Pollux, magnitude 1.2, the brightest star in Gemini, early evening sky. |
| April 5 | End of New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT) at 3am. Clocks set back 1 hour, then 12 hours ahead of UT (GMT). |
| April 5 | Pluto stationary. |
| April 6 | 87% lit waxing Moon 5° from Regulus, magnitude 1.4, brightest star in Leo, closest in early evening. |
| April 7 | 94% lit waxing Moon just over 5° from Saturn closest in early evening. |
| April 10 | Full Moon at 2:56am NZST (Apr 9, 14:56 UT). Moon 4° from Spica, magnitude 1.1, brightest star in Virgo. Closest at dawn. |
| April 13/14 | 84% lit waning Moon just over half a degree from Antares, magnitude 1.1, brightest star in Scorpius. Closest just after midnight. |
| April 15 | Moon furthest south, resulting in the highest southern hemisphere transit for the month. |
| April 15 | Venus stationary. |
| April 16 | Mars half a degree to the right of Uranus in dawn sky. |
| April 16 | Moon at apogee, its greatest distance from the Earth for the Lunar month, 404235 km. |
| April 18 | Moon at last quarter 1:36am NZST (Apr 17, 13:36 UT). |
| April 20 | 30% lit waning Moon about 3° from Jupiter and from Neptune before dawn. |
| April 22 | Crescent Moon, 13% lit, 6.5° to upper left of Uranus dawn sky. |
| April 23 | Crescent Moon, 7% lit, 4° below Venus and 6.5° to lower left of Mars, dawn sky. |
| April 24, 25 and 26 | Venus just over 4° to left of Mars, dawn sky. |
| April 25 | New Moon at 3:23 pm NZST (03:23 UT). |
| April 26 | Mercury at greatest elongation, 20° east of the Sun. |
| April 28 | Moon at perigee, its closest to the Earth for the Lunar month, 366038 km. Second perigee for April. |
| April 28 | Moon furthest north, resulting in the lowest southern hemisphere transit for the month. Second occurrence for April |
| April 30 | 32% lit waxing Moon 6° to left of Pollux, magnitude 1.2, the brightest star in Gemini, early evening sky. |
Return to Top of page. Diary of events. RASNZ home page
VENUS moves rapidly up into the morning sky in April following its conjunction with the Sun at the end of March. It rise some 15 minutes before the Sun on April 1, 90 minutes before it on April 10 and more than 3 hours earlier by the end of the month.
Towards the end of April Venus will join Mars and Uranus in a grouping of the three planets in the morning sky. Their configuration will change from day to day. They will be joined by the waning Moon as a thin crescent on the mornings the 22nd and 23rd of April.
The diagram show the relative paths of the three planets in the morning sky from April 12 to 30, with the crescent Moon is shown at its positions on April 22 and 23. The paths are plotted relative to a fixed point in the sky (compared to the stars) which itself will get higher above the horizon at the same time each morning, eg 6 am. As a result the actual altitude of Mars will remain virtually constant throughout, while both Venus and Uranus will be some 12° higher by April 30 compared to April 12.
MARS is in the dawn sky during April with a magnitude 1.2. It is in
the constellation Aquarius until April 15, after which it moves into Pisces. It will continue
to rise at virtually the same time, between about 4.10am and 4.30am NZST depending on the
locality in New Zealand. It's altitude will also remain about the same, at the same time,
throughout April.
As can be seen on the chart, Mars will pass close to Uranus in mid April. The two planets are half a degree apart on April 16 as Mars moves into Pisces. Uranus at magnitude 5.9 will be an easy binocular object, and unmistakable as there will be no star of similar magnitude that close to Mars. On April 24, 25 and 26 Mars will be at its closest to Venus, the two being just over 4° apart each day.
JUPITER, will rise soon after 3 am (NZDT) at the beginning of April
and before 1 am (NZST) on April 30. So the planet will be well up and easily visible
before the dawn sky brightens too much.
Jupiter will be in Capricornus throughout the month. On April 19 it will be joined by the Moon, 30% lit, with the two just over 3° apart in the dawn sky. At the same time the Moon will be some 2.5° to the left of Neptune, magnitude 7.9. By the end of April the two planets will be themselves be 2.5° apart.
SATURN will be a slow moving object in Leo easily visible in
the evening sky. It will set in the early morning well before dawn especially by the end of
April. The planet is at its highest and to the north just after midnight (NZDT) on 1 April,
and about 9 pm (NZST) by April 30. Saturn will be in Leo, about 15° from Regulus,
magnitude 1.4. The two will be nearly level mid evening, with the brighter Saturn to the
right of the star.
The near full Moon, 94% lit, will be 6° from Saturn on April 7. The two are actually closest during the daytime, and will gradually get a little further apart during the evening.
Saturn's brightest satellite Titan will be eclipsed by the planet twice during April. On the night of April 5 Titan will move into Saturn's shadow about 9:18pm (NZST) and emerge again at about 1:40am NZST. On April 21 the disappearance into eclipse will be about an hour earlier at 8:18pm with the reappearance at 1:12am. More details on observing these events and a table of the times of all the eclipses can be found on the page of eclipses of Titan and Rhea.