Sky Tour Podcast for April 2026
This month’s episode is sponsored by Celestron, manufacturer of high-quality telescopes and an industry leader in developing exciting optical products with revolutionary technologies.
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I’m Kelly Beatty of Sky & Telescope magazine, and tonight we’re going on a tour of the stars and planets that you’ll see overhead during April. First we’ll check in with the Moon; spot Venus and Jupiter after sunset; learn about the celestial twins; and hunt for meteors toward month’s end. So grab your curiosity, and come along on this month’s Sky Tour.
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Let’s start with a quick flashback. Where were you on April 8, 2024? Hard to believe, but it’s already been two years since the Moon’s shadow raced across the U.S. and let millions of skywatchers experience a total solar eclipse. I hope you got a chance to see it. The next total solar eclipse occurs this coming August, visible from Iceland and Spain, but totality won’t return to the contiguous U.S. until 2044. That’s a long wait.
This is one of the better months for stargazing here in the Northern Hemisphere. Spring evenings are generally pleasant, and the bugs haven’t taken control — yet! Even with daylight time in effect, evening twilight comes fairly early. You’ll find that the Sun sets between 7:30 and 8:00 during most of this month, and by 9 p.m. it’s good and dark. 
We start off with a full Moon on April 1st, which many Native Americans knew as the full Pink Moon, because it heralded the appearance of pink-colored wildflowers called phlox. Watch for that big, bright orb to climb over the eastern horizon around 7 p.m. 
Here are a couple of oddities about a rising full Moon. First, if you’re able to watch it just as it’s coming up, it’ll likely have an orange hue. That’s because its light is being filtered by a lot of atmosphere when it’s that low down, and any blue light gets scattered away. The second novelty is that just as it clears the horizon the full Moon’s shape might look a little squashed. That’s also because of all the atmosphere,  which acts to bend, or refract, the Moon’s disk upward from where it really is, geometrically, by about one lunar diameter. This effect is stronger closer to the horizon, so the bottom of the lunar disk gets refracted upward more than the top does, briefly creating the oval shape you see.
After April 1st, the Moon rises about an hour later on each successive night, meaning that you can do your evening stargazing without having strong moonlight spoiling the view. Last quarter comes on the night of April 9th, and by then moonrise won’t occur until well after midnight. New Moon is the 17th, so look for a thin crescent low in the west after sunset a couple evenings later. First quarter follows on April 23rd.
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Planet-wise, this is definitely a month of transition. You’ll recall that last month Venus, Saturn, and Mercury were barely in view low in the west after sunset — all party of that over-hyped “planet parade.” Now Saturn and Mercury have left the evening stage, leaving brilliant Venus. It’s still low in the west at dusk but climbing higher week by week, setting about two hours after sunset. 
If you’ve got keen eyesight — or you need help from binoculars, like me — you might be able to spot the Pleiades star cluster low in the west above Venus. They’re separated by about twice the width of your clenched fist at arm’s length early in the month. But that gap narrows as the cluster slowly sinks and Venus rises. They’re less than a fist apart on the 18th and 19th, when a beautiful thin crescent Moon joins the scene, and they’re just 3° apart (about the width of two fingers) on the 23rd. The bright star Aldebaran, in Taurus, sits to their upper left by about one fist.
And if you do have binoculars, use them to take a look at Venus on April 23rd about an hour after sunset. That faint “star” just to its lower left is actually the planet Uranus. Now, let’s be clear about the expectations here: That distant world will appear thousands of times dimmer than Venus. Still, if you’ve never seen Uranus before, this is an easy way to glimpse it.
The other planet visible on April evenings is Jupiter. You’ll find it higher up in the west, glowing brightly about halfway from the horizon to overhead once it gets dark. The King of Planets gets a passing visit by the Moon on April 23rd, when they’ll be about two fingers apart.
Meanwhile, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn are bunched close together low in the east about 30 minutes before sunrise. In the coming weeks Mercury will slide back into the evening sky after sunset, while Mars and Saturn start a slow march westward among the stars. But for now they’re almost hopelessly lost in the strong glare of morning twilight. So sorry!
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April’s evening skies offer plenty of bright stars to check out. First, look over in the west after sunset. In early April, as twilight deepens, you’ll spot the last vestiges of the northern winter sky. Orion is there, getting ready to exit the evening stage. Look for the three stars in a horizontal row that mark the Hunter’s belt. 
Use this belt as your starting point. One fist higher up is the bright star Betelgeuse, and one fist lower down is equally bright Rigel. These two stars frame Orion’s body. Now look a little wider. Two fists to the left of the belt is Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky. And two fists to the right is Aldebaran, in Taurus, with Venus farther to the right. Enjoy Orion while you can, because after this month it’s not returning to the evening sky until November.
Well above Sirius and Orion, about halfway from the southwestern horizon to overhead, is the bright star Procyon, in the constellation Canis Minor, the Little Dog. Now swing your gaze well to Procyon’s right, roughly as high up and about fists away, and roughly as high up, to spot the bright star Capella. 
In between Procyon and Capella, and a little higher up, are a nice pair of equally bright stars. These are Pollux and Castor, the Twins of Gemini. Can you tell which is which? Just remember that Pollux, on the left, is closer to Procyon — and both names begin with “P.” Castor, on the right, is closer to Capella — and both begin with “C”. Pollux is also a little brighter, in part because it’s closer to us, just 34 light-years away compared to 52 for Castor. The star at the foot of the left twin is called Alhena, Arabic for “the brand” (as might be put on the neck of a camel, for example).
Gemini’s two brightest stars mark the heads of mythology’s twin brothers (by different fathers, it seems), and at this time of year their heads are on top of their bodies, which hang side by side toward the horizon. Honestly, the mythology is pretty messy here. Their mother was Leda, and the usual story is that Castor was fathered by Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. Anyway, in time Pollux convinced his dad to make Castor immortal, so the twins could always be together, and Zeus transformed them into Gemini.
To the left or upper left of Gemini, by about four fists, is the constellation Leo, the Lion. Its brightest star is called Regulus, meaning little king, and late on the evening of April 25th you can watch the dark edge of the gibbous Moon slide across Regulus, making it blink from view. The star pops back out roughly 45 minutes later, but that’ll be along the Moon’s bright edge and really hard to see by eye. For more details and times form major cities across the U.S., head to skyandtelescope.org a few days before this coverup. Go another five fists eastward from Regulus, and you reach Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, the Maiden.
Now turn to face north, raise your gaze high, and you’ll immediately recognize our old friend the Big Dipper. It’s positioned with its handle pointing toward east. According to old farmer’s lore, if you face north, the Dipper’s bowl appears upside down as if dumping April showers. Look past the end of the handle by three fists, and you’ll reach the star Arcturus. This is the fourth brightest star in the night sky. Together with Sirius, which is #1, and Capella, #6, these three stars make an enormous triangle that nearly spans the entire evening sky.
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 I want to mention three quick things before closing. First, from April 13th to 20th, we can all celebrate International Dark-Sky Week. If you appreciate a really dark night sky, and who doesn’t, go to idsw.darksky.org to learn more.
Second, during the first half of April, you can participate in the Globe at Night project. This is a fun and easy way for you, your family, and your friends to judge how much light pollution is overhead. You’ll be looking to see how many stars you can spot in and around the constellation Leo, which is about halfway up in the east once it gets dark. No equipment or experience is needed. For more details go to globeatnight.org. 
Finally, April is the month of the Lyrid [LIE-rid] meteor shower, which peaks on the night of April 22nd. These “shooting stars” seem to radiate from a point in the sky near the constellation Lyra, which rises in late evening. If you can stay out after midnight, you could be rewarded with a Lyrid every 5 to 10 minutes. 
That’s about it for this month. If you want more tips for viewing the night sky, including a free, interactive star chart for any time or date, check out our website, SkyandTelescope.org.
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And if you want to explore the solar system and universe more deeply, please do check out the full line of binoculars and telescopes available at Celestron.com.
Sky Tour is a production of Sky & Telescope, a division of the American Astronomical Society, and is produced by me, Kelly Beatty. 
Next month I’ll introduce you to what I call the Swiss Army Knife of the night sky. Until then, I wish you clear skies.