A monthly look at astronomical events in the sky and on Earth
Compiled and written by Steve Sawyer
Welcome to April’s edition of What’s Up
Welcome to April’s “What’s Up”, where Spring is now well and truly underway. The clocks have gone forward, the evenings are stretching out, and we’re starting to get that magical mix of warmer air and darker skies.
This month, the winter constellations are finally setting in the west, making way for the bright stars of spring. We have a stunning gathering of the Moon, Venus, and the Pleiades to look forward to, and April also brings the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower. This year, the Moon won’t wash out the show, leaving us with excellent dark skies for meteor hunting.
This Month’s York Astro Presentations
Upcoming events to put in your diary:
| Date | Title | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 03/04/2026 | Good Friday – No Evening Meeting But solar viewing is planned for the daytime from 10:30am | |
| 17/04/2026 | Members Evening – Short Talks | York AS Members |
For further details see the events page Astronomy Presentations by guest speakers | York Astro and our Facebook group (20+) The York Astronomical Society Chat Group | Facebook.
So what’s on this month?
Southern Sky
Leo dominates the southern sky this month, looking vaguely like the crouching lion after which it is named. Leading the way is its brightest star, Regulus, and the distinctive “Sickle” asterism which rides high in the spring skies.
To the west, the familiar winter constellations are beginning to set, though Gemini, with its bright stars Castor and Pollux, remains clearly visible. Nestled quietly between Gemini and Leo is the faint zodiacal constellation of Cancer.
Looking to the east of Leo, the large constellation of Virgo is now well clear of the horizon, featuring its principal star Spica sitting to the lower left of Regulus. Riding high in the eastern sky above Virgo is Boötes, marked by the brilliant orange star Arcturus, accompanied by the small circlet of stars that make up Corona Borealis. Nestled between Leo and Boötes, you can find Coma Berenices, which is notable for being the home of the open cluster Melotte 111 and the distant Coma Cluster of galaxies.
Finally, sweeping low beneath both Leo and Virgo is the full length of Hydra, the water snake, marked by its brightest star Alphard towards the southwest. Sitting just between Hydra and Virgo are the two small, faint constellations of Crater and Corvus.
Northern Sky
In the early evening, Cygnus and the brighter regions of the Milky Way begin to appear, running nearly parallel to the northern horizon. Looking high overhead, you will find Ursa Major positioned “upside down” near the zenith.
Towards the northeast, the small constellation of Lyra is rising. Above it sits the distinctive “Keystone” asterism of Hercules, which serves as an excellent guidepost for locating the ancient globular cluster M13. Weaving its way through this region is Draco, which stretches from its ‘head’ on the border with Hercules and ends at the star Giausar, located exactly between the Pole Star (Polaris) and the Pointer stars of Ursa Major (Dubhe and Merak).
Due north, the familiar shape of Cassiopeia has swung around to sit almost on the meridian below Polaris, while the neighbouring constellation of Cepheus is starting to climb higher.
Over in the northwest, Auriga and its brilliantly bright star Capella remain clearly visible, though the southern part of Perseus begins to dip below the northern horizon as the month progresses. Between Polaris, Auriga, and Perseus, you can also try to spot the very faint constellation of Camelopardalis. Finally, standing almost vertically in the western sky is the constellation of Gemini.
April 2026 Calendar
| Date | Time (UT) | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 02 | 02:12 | Full Moon | |
| Apr 03 | 01:32 | Moon & Spica | Spica 1.8°S of the Moon |
| Apr 03 | 22:33 | Mercury at Elongation | Greatest western elongation (27.8°W, morning sky) |
| Apr 06 | 19:21 | Moon Occults Antares | Antares 0.6°N of the Moon (Occultation visible from Antarctica) |
| Apr 10 | 04:52 | Last Quarter Moon | |
| Apr 16 | 00:45 | Moon & Mars | Mars 3.7°S of the Moon |
| Apr 17 | 11:52 | New Moon | Darkest skies of the month |
| Apr 18 | — | Moon & Venus | The narrowest crescent Moon lies to the lower right of Venus |
| Apr 19 | 08:49 | Moon & Venus | Venus 4.8°S of the Moon |
| Apr 19 | 16:28 | Moon & Pleiades | Pleiades cluster 1.0°S of the Moon |
| Apr 20 | 00:00 | Mercury & Mars | Mercury 1.7°S of Mars |
| Apr 20 | 08:03 | Mercury & Saturn | Mercury 0.5°S of Saturn |
| Apr 22 | Night | Lyrid Meteors | Peak of shower |
| Apr 22 | 22:06 | Moon & Jupiter | Jupiter 3.6°S of the Moon |
| Apr 23 | Night | Venus & Uranus | Venus passes Uranus to its lower left |
| Apr 24 | 02:32 | First Quarter Moon | |
| Apr 26 | 00:37 | Moon Occults Regulus | Regulus 0.2°S of the Moon (Occultation visible from the Americas) |
| Apr 30 | 08:17 | Moon & Spica | Spica 1.8°N of the Moon |
This table captures the astronomical events for April, including phases of the moon, planetary alignments, and other notable occurrences.
Sky Maps
Looking South on the 15th at 22:00
Looking North on the 15th at 22:00
The two charts above show all DSOs of magnitude 6.0 or brighter. They are both taken from
SkyViewCafe.com and correct for the 15th of the month.
April’s Sky Guide
The Sun
☀️ Solar Forecast – April 2026
Source: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Centre (SWPC) | Data: 27-Day Outlook & Weekly Forecast (Issued 30 Mar 2026)
As we navigate the heightened activity of Solar Cycle 25, predicting space weather is essential for knowing when to look out for auroras or complex sunspots. For April, the forecast indicates a month filled with excellent aurora-chasing opportunities due to several recurring coronal hole high-speed streams (CH HSS).
🌌 Aurora Watch: Key Storm Windows
The Kp Index measures global geomagnetic activity. For April, NOAA forecasts multiple periods where the index is expected to reach Kp 5 (a G1 Minor Geomagnetic Storm) and Kp 6 (a G2 Moderate Geomagnetic Storm).
- April 4: Kp 5 (G1 Minor Storm). A spike in activity driven by a negative polarity CH HSS.
- April 9 – 11: Kp 5 to Kp 6 (G1 to G2 Storms). A significant storm window! G1 conditions are likely on the 9th and 11th, but activity peaks at a G2 (Moderate) Storm on April 10 with an A-index of 40 and Kp of 6 due to positive polarity CH HSS influences.
- April 18 – 19: Kp 5 to Kp 6 (G1 to G2 Storms). Another major opportunity for UK observers! The field is expected to reach G2 storm levels on April 18 (with a massive A-index peak of 48), followed by a G1 storm period on April 19, driven by negative polarity CH HSS.
☀️ Solar Activity: Sunspot & Radio Flux Trends
For those using solar telescopes or safe filters, the 10.7cm Radio Flux (a proxy for sunspot complexity) shows moderate but fluctuating levels this month:
- Early April (1 – 7 Apr): The month starts with strong flux at 155 sfu, indicating a good chance for complex sunspot observation, before tapering down to 125 sfu.
- Mid-April (8 – 16 Apr): The radio flux drops to a low of 110 sfu around April 10 and 14. Interestingly, similar to last month, this dip in solar emissions coincides with some of the highest geomagnetic disturbances of the month.
- Late April (17 – 25 Apr): Activity climbs steadily again, reaching a peak of 160 sfu by April 24.
NOAA anticipates a varying chance for M-class (R1-R2/Minor-Moderate) solar flares throughout the month.
📊 Summary Table
| Date | Max Solar Flux (10.7 cm) | Max Geomagnetic A Index | Max Kp | Activity Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 01–07 | 155 | 22 | 5 | G1 Storm expected on Apr 4. Unsettled to active early in the week. |
| Apr 08–14 | 120 | 40 | 6 | Major Aurora Alert! G1 storms on Apr 9 & 11, peaking at G2 on Apr 10. |
| Apr 15–21 | 140 | 48 | 6 | Major Aurora Alert! G2 storm on Apr 18, followed by a G1 storm on Apr 19. |
| Apr 22–30 | 160 | 15 | 4 | Flux rising steadily to 160 sfu. Active conditions possible towards the 25th. |
(Note: Forecast data currently extends to April 25)
📊 Forecast Visualisation
The chart below shows the predicted sunspot count alongside solar activity.
Aurora Forecasts
A bit US centred but still useful: Aurora Dashboard (Experimental) | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center And our own Met-office have an excellent space weather forecast page here: Space Weather – Met Office
The Moon
April’s Lunar Calendar
April’s moon calendar from Sky View Café (skyviewcafe.com).
Moon Feature
A Beautiful Tableau: The Moon, Venus, and the Pleiades (April 18–19)
On the evenings of April 18 and 19, look to the western sky as it grows dark for a truly beautiful tableau. On the 18th, the narrowest waxing crescent Moon will lie to the lower right of the brilliant planet Venus, with the bright star Aldebaran and the Pleiades star cluster shining above.
By the evening of April 19, the Moon will have moved up to team up with Venus. If you grab a pair of binoculars and look closely right below the lunar crescent, you will find the sparkling stars of the Pleiades cluster perfectly framed in the same field of view. This will be an outstanding wide-field astrophotography opportunity!
Planets
⚪ Mercury
Mercury reaches its greatest western elongation on April 3, making it a morning star. However, it remains very low on the eastern horizon, making this a poor apparition for observers in northern temperate latitudes like York.
🟡 Venus
Venus is the glorious Evening Star this month, blazing at magnitude –3.9. It rises high enough that you can see it against a truly dark sky; by the end of April, it doesn’t set until around 11 pm. On April 23, Venus passes just to the right of Uranus, providing a great guidepost to find the much fainter ice giant.
🔴 Mars
Mars moves from Aquarius into Pisces this month, shining moderately at magnitude +1.2 to +1.3. It is visible as a morning object low in the east before sunrise. It passes 1.2° north of Saturn on the morning of April 19.
🟠 Jupiter
Jupiter continues to reside in Gemini, shining brightly at magnitude –2.1. It remains second in brightness only to Venus and sets around 3 am. It pairs nicely with the Moon on the evening of April 22.
🪐 Saturn
Saturn remains a morning sky object in Pisces, shining at magnitude +0.9. It leads the sunrise and slowly pulls away from the Sun’s glare as the month progresses.
🔵 Uranus
Uranus is on the borderline of naked-eye visibility at magnitude +5.8 in Taurus. On April 23, use binoculars to find it as a faint bluish-green “star” just 50 arcminutes to the left of Venus.
🔷 Neptune
Neptune is located in Pisces and is slowly emerging into the dawn sky, but at magnitude +8.0, it remains lost in the morning twilight for northern observers this month.
Meteor Showers
The Lyrids (April 22–23)
For northern hemisphere observers, the Lyrid meteor shower begins on April 16 and peaks on the night of April 22 into the early morning of April 23. These meteors are debris from Comet Thatcher and often leave dusty trails as they burn up in the atmosphere.
2026 is a fantastic year for the Lyrids! Because the Moon is a waxing crescent during the peak, it will set around 2 am, leaving the early morning skies completely dark. Expect to see a maximum rate of around 18 meteors per hour radiating from the constellation Lyra.
👁️ Naked Eye Challenge: The Zodiacal Light
At this time of year, the ecliptic (the path of the Sun, Moon, and planets) rises steeply from the horizon at dusk. This angle makes April an ideal month to catch one of the most elusive and ghostly of all astronomical sights: the Zodiacal Light.
To see it, you will need to get well away from city streetlights on a moonless night (the period around the New Moon on April 17 is perfect). Look to the west just after the twilight has completely faded. If your skies are dark enough, you may spot a faint, glowing pyramid of light stretching up from the horizon along the line of the zodiac.
What is it? This ghostly glow is actually sunlight reflecting off a massive, diffuse fog of tiny dust particles filling the inner Solar System. Astronomers believe these particles are the dusty remains of ancient comets and crushed asteroids, though recent evidence suggests some of it may even be dust escaping from Mars!
Comets
April brings some excellent comet hunting opportunities, with two comets potentially breaking the naked-eye threshold!
| Comet Name | Predicted Magnitude | Visibility Period (Approx.) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) | 5 | Morning | The highlight of the month! This comet reaches magnitude 5, making it a potentially naked-eye object in the morning sky. |
| C/2026 A1 (MAPS) | 7 | Evening | A fantastic binocular target shining at magnitude 7 in the evening sky. |
| 88P/Howell | 9 | Morning | Holding steady at magnitude 9; a good telescopic target before dawn. |
| C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) | 10 | Evening | Fading, but still visible in evening skies for moderate telescopes. |
| 10P/Tempel 2 | 13 | Morning | A faint telescopic object just starting to appear in morning skies. |
| 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 | 13 (Variable) | Midnight/Morning | Unpredictable centaur object; always worth checking for sudden outbursts. |
Data sourced from Seiichi Yoshida’s Visual Comets in the Future.
Deep Sky (DSOs)
📸 Astrophotographer’s Target: The Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038 & NGC 4039)
If you want to push your observing or imaging skills this month, turn your telescope toward the constellation Corvus to witness a slow-motion cosmic disaster unfolding roughly 45 million light-years away.
The Antennae Galaxies are a pair of stately spiral galaxies whose paths have crossed. The immense gravitational wreckage of this collision has thrown out massive streamers of stars and gas, giving the co-mingling pair their insect-like name.
- For the Astrophotographer: This is a spectacular target. The collision has compressed vast clouds of gas, triggering a massive rash of starbirth. Long exposures, particularly those using hydrogen-alpha filters, will reveal these star-forming regions shining brilliantly in red, alongside the faint, sweeping tidal tails of the “antennae”.
- For the Visual Observer: You will need a moderate-to-large telescope and very dark skies. While the sweeping antennae are generally too faint for the eyepiece, you can clearly spot the two colliding, heart-shaped galactic cores locked in their gravitational dance.
- A Glimpse of the Future: Eventually, this violent merger will settle down, and the two spirals will coalesce into a giant, gas-poor elliptical galaxy. Observing them gives us a direct preview of our own galaxy’s fate: in about five billion years, the Milky Way is destined to smash into the Andromeda Galaxy, eventually forming a single massive galaxy nicknamed “Milkomeda”.
🌌 Spring Galaxy Challenges
With the Milky Way out of the way, April is all about hunting down distant galaxies. Here are a few spectacular targets to test your visual observing skills and push your astrophotography setups to the limit:
📸 Astrophotography Challenge 1: The Leo Triplet (M65, M66, and NGC 3628)
Constellation: Leo | Distance: ~35 million light-years
- What it is: A magnificent grouping of three galaxies located roughly halfway between the stars Chort and Iota Leonis. M65 and M66 are a beautiful pair of spiral galaxies that appear as faint smudges of light in smaller scopes. However, they are accompanied by a third, fainter galaxy called NGC 3628.
- The Challenge: NGC 3628 (often called the Hamburger Galaxy) requires at least a 4-inch telescope and very dark skies just to be seen visually. For astrophotographers, the ultimate test is framing all three galaxies in a single wide-field shot while teasing out the delicate, dark dust lane that bisects the edge-on disk of NGC 3628.
📸 Astrophotography Challenge 2: M87’s Relativistic Jet
Constellation: Virgo | Distance: 54 million light-years
- What it is: If you sweep the ‘bowl’ of Virgo’s Y-shape, you will be looking into the heart of the Virgo Cluster, a vast swarm of around 2,000 galaxies. The undisputed king of this cluster is M87, a giant elliptical galaxy.
- The Challenge: M87 famously hosts one of the most massive black holes known (roughly 6.5 billion solar masses). This black hole is actively ejecting a 5,000-light-year-long jet of high-speed subatomic particles. While the galaxy itself is visible as a bright fuzzball in small scopes, capturing this visible relativistic jet requires a medium-to-large telescope, pristine dark skies, and masterful long-exposure astrophotography.
🔭 Visual & Imaging Target: M81 and M82 (Bode’s Galaxy & The Cigar Galaxy)
Constellation: Ursa Major | Distance: 12 million light-years
- What it is: With Ursa Major riding extremely high (almost “upside down” near the zenith) in April skies, this pair is perfectly placed. M81 is a beautiful, smooth spiral galaxy with a softly glowing bulge. Its companion, M82, is a “starburst galaxy” that looks completely chaotic due to a close encounter with M81 roughly 300 million years ago.
- The Challenge: While both are visible in good binoculars on a dark night, the photographic challenge lies in M82. The ancient collision ripped out streams of gas that are still raining back down onto M82’s core, creating a massive eruption of star formation. Astrophotographers should aim to use hydrogen-alpha filters to capture the spectacular, chaotic red tendrils of gas erupting from its center.
ISS and other orbiting bits
🚀 ISS Overpasses
| Date | Mag | Start (Time / Alt / Az) | Max Point (Time / Alt / Az) | End (Time / Alt / Az) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Apr | -1.2 | 19:23:40 (10° N) | 19:24:01 (12° N) | 19:24:01 (12° N) |
| 3 Apr | -0.2 | 20:12:46 (10° WNW) | 20:12:46 (10° WNW) | 20:12:46 (10° WNW) |
| 4 Apr | -3.5 | 19:25:09 (10° NW) | 19:28:28 (65° SW) | 19:28:33 (65° SW) |
| 5 Apr | -3.5 | 18:38:01 (10° NNW) | 18:41:17 (48° NE) | 18:44:22 (11° SE) |
| 6 Apr | -0.7 | 19:29:12 (10° W) | 19:30:39 (12° SW) | 19:32:06 (10° SSW) |
| 7 Apr | -0.8 | 05:28:29 (10° SSE) | 05:30:25 (14° SE) | 05:32:21 (10° E) |
| 7 Apr | -1.6 | 18:40:31 (10° WNW) | 18:43:23 (26° SW) | 18:46:15 (10° S) |
| 9 Apr | -3.7 | 05:29:07 (10° SSW) | 05:32:28 (81° SE) | 05:35:49 (10° NE) |
| 10 Apr | -2.1 | 04:43:15 (18° S) | 04:45:10 (32° SE) | 04:48:12 (10° ENE) |
| 11 Apr | -0.6 | 03:58:52 (13° ESE) | 03:58:52 (13° ESE) | 03:59:47 (10° E) |
| 11 Apr | -2.0 | 05:32:07 (10° W) | 05:34:25 (17° NW) | 05:36:43 (10° N) |
| 12 Apr | -3.0 | 04:47:25 (36° NW) | 04:47:25 (36° NW) | 04:50:11 (10° NNE) |
| 13 Apr | -0.6 | 04:02:47 (12° NE) | 04:02:47 (12° NE) | 04:03:00 (10° NE) |
(Note: As satellite passes depend heavily on your specific location and the exact date, please use dedicated tracker apps or websites like Heavens-Above closer to the time for accurate April 2026 ISS overpass schedules.)
Useful Resources
- StarLust – A Website for People with a Passion for Astronomy, Stargazing, and Space Exploration.
- https://www.spacedaily.com/
- http://www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html
- http://skymaps.com/downloads.html
- Astronomy Calendar of Celestial Events – Sea and Sky (seasky.org)
- http://www.deepskywatch.com/deepsky-guide.html
- https://www.constellation-guide.com/
- IMO | International Meteor Organization
- https://in-the-sky.org/
- And of course, the Sky at Night magazine!