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The Moon and Planets in April 2010


The Major Planets in April 2010

Mars and Saturn are visible during the evening in April with Mars setting late evening by the end of April. Mars will be highest early evening, Saturn late evening.
Venus slowly edges a little higher into the evening twilight during April, but will remain a low object. Mercury, even lower than Venus, will be all but unobservable.

Jupiter rises further into the morning sky and will be at a reasonable altitude for observation an hour before sunrise by the end of the month.
Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

The planets in 2010: geocentric events and conjunctions Apparent sizes of the Planets in 2010

Bright Asteroids Jovian Satellites Saturn's Titan Artificial Satellites

Orbital diagrams for the inner planets November 2009 to March 2010,  April to July 2010,   and the outer planets for 2010.

Date (NZDT) Diary of Solar System Events in April 2010 for New Zealand
April 3 77% lit Moon 2° from Antares, magnitude 1.1, brightest star in Scorpius, closest late evening.
April 4 NZDT ends at 3am NZDT. Clocks revert to NZST, 12 hours ahead of Universal (Greenwich) Time.
April 4 Moon furthest south, so highest southern hemisphere transit for the month.
April 6 Moon at last quarter 9:37pm NZST (09:37 UT).
April 7 Pluto stationary, retrograde motion to the west through stars commences as Earth starts catching up with the dwarf planet.
April 9 Mercury at greatest elongation , 19° east of the Sun.
April 9 Moon at apogee, its greatest distance from the Earth for the Lunar month, 405000 km.
April 10 20% lit Moon, 4° to left of Neptune, mag 8.0, morning sky before start of nautical twilight.
April 12 7.5% lit crescent Moon, 6° from Jupiter, morning sky.
April 13 3% lit crescent Moon, 8° below Uranus low morning sky at start of nautical twilight.
April 15 New Moon at 12:29am NZST (Apr 14, 12:29 UT).
April 19 Mercury stationary.
April 19 Moon furthest north, so lowest southern hemisphere transit for the month.
April 22 Moon at first quarter 6.20am NZST (Apr 21, 18:20 UT).
April 22 56% lit Moon 3.5° above Mars, early evening sky.
April 23 68% lit Moon 6° from Regulus, magnitude 1.4, brightest star in Leo, closest after midnight.
April 25 Moon at perigee, its closest to the Earth for the lunar month, 367 145km.
April 25/26 88% lit Moon 8° from Saturn, closer after midnight.
April 27 98% lit Moon 2.5° from Spica, magnitude 1.1, closest near midnight.
April 29 Full Moon at 12.19am NZST (Apr 28, 12:19 UT).
April 29 Mercury at inferior conjunction.

Diary events derived from Dave Herald's OCCULT 4

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Mercury in April MERCURY starts April as an evening object, but sets no more than half an hour after the Sun. It will be 3 to 4° below Venus, but even so, it will be very difficult to observe due to the strong twilight. After 10 April, Mercury will be moving back towards the Sun. It reaches inferior conjunction, between the Earth and Sun at the end of the month.


Venus in April VENUS will slowly move higher in the evening twilight during April. It sets about 45 minutes later than the Sun on the 1st and 75 minutes on the 30th, (although sightly earlier by clock time). Thus it should be visible low almost round to the northwest for a short time after sunset.

During April, Venus moves across Aries and then into Taurus on April 20. Five days later it passes within 3° of the Pleiades, although these will be difficult to see low in twilight.

Mars in April MARS will be readily visible in the evening sky throughout April, with a transit time soon after 8 pm NZST (9 pm NZDT for the 1st 3 days) advancing to 7 pm by the end of April. By then the planet will set just before midnight. At transit, when highest and to the north, Mars will remain rather low in southern skies, only slightly higher than the midwinter sun. It will remain bright, but fade a little during the month from magnitude 0.2 to 0.7.

During April, Mars will move to the east across Cancer and pass about 1° below, that is north of the Praesepe (Beehive) star cluster, being closest on April 17.

On the evening of the 22nd, the 56% lit Moon will be about 3.5° above Mars. The two are at their closest early evening.

Jupiter in April JUPITER moves further up into the morning sky during April. It rises about 2 hours before the Sun on the 1st and 4 hours before on the 30th. By the latter date, Jupiter will be about 30° above the horizon at the start of nautical twilight (sun 12° below the horizon).

This month the Moon will be about 7.5% lit when it passes Jupiter. The two are closest on the morning of the 12th, when they will be just under 6° apart before dawn, with the moon to the lower left of Jupiter.

On the morning of April 1, Jupiter will just over 7.5', a quarter of the moon's diameter, from the 4.2 magnitude star phi Aquarii, with Jupiter to upper left of the star. The following morning, Jupiter will be just under 10' below the star.

Saturn in April SATURN is well placed for evening viewing throughout April. It transits about midnight early April (1 am before NZDT ends) and 10 pm by April 30. At transit it will be about 20 degrees higher than is Mars and similar in brightness. Early in April Saturn will be low, a little to the north of east at then end of twilight, so is best observed mid to late evening. Saturn will be in Virgo, about 25° from the star Spica. The planet will be to the left of the star early evening, but to its lower left by the time it transits, with Saturn will be slightly brighter than Spica.

The 88% lit moon passes Saturn on the night of April 25/26. From New Zealand they will closest after midnight, about 8° apart, with the moon to the left of Saturn.

Saturn's rings are still only open a slight amount, so will generally appear as a bar either side of the planet in a small telescope.
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