Friday, April 5
New Moon occurs at 4:50 a.m. EDT. At its New phase, the Moon crosses the sky with the Sun and so remains hidden in our star’s glare.
Orion the Hunter stands out in the southwest as darkness falls this week. The conspicuous constellation appears slightly askew compared with its appearance in winter’s evening sky. Now, the three-star belt is aligned parallel to the horizon while blue-white Rigel hangs directly below the belt and ruddy Betelgeuse stands directly above.
Saturday, April 6
With an age of 4.5 billion years, “young” might not seem an appropriate word to describe our Moon. But tonight, you have an exceptional opportunity to see what astronomers call a “young Moon” — a slender crescent visible in the early evening sky. With New Moon having occurred yesterday morning, only 3 percent of our satellite’s disk appears illuminated after sunset tonight. (Tomorrow evening, a 7-percent-lit lunar crescent hangs noticeably higher in the sky.) You should notice an ashen light faintly illuminating the Moon’s dark side. This is “earthshine,” sunlight reflected by Earth that reaches the Moon and then reflects back to our waiting eyes.
Sunday, April 7
Saturn grows more conspicuous in the morning sky with each passing week. The ringed planet rises before 3 a.m. local daylight time and climbs 20° above the southeastern horizon by the time twilight begins. Saturn shines at magnitude 0.6 and appears significantly brighter than any of the background stars in its host constellation, Sagittarius the Archer. A telescope shows the gas giant’s 17"-diameter disk and a spectacular ring system that spans 37" and tilts 24° to our line of sight.
Monday, April 8
The Moon moves an average of 13° eastward relative to the background stars each day. And because the ecliptic — the apparent path of the Sun across our sky that the planets and Moon follow closely — makes a steep angle to the western horizon after sunset at this time of year, the waxing Moon gains nearly 13° of altitude each evening. Tonight, the 13-percent-lit crescent makes a pretty addition to Mars and the bright Pleiades and Hyades star clusters in Taurus the Bull. Our satellite stands 6° south of the Red Planet and 8° west of Aldebaran, the ruddy 1st-magnitude star that appears to anchor the Hyades. (In reality, the star is a foreground object.) The objects remain on display from twilight until they start to set around 11 p.m. local daylight time. Of course, magnitude 1.5 Mars remains a fixture in Taurus all week, sliding eastward between the two clusters.