The 365 Days of Astronomy Actual Astronomy - The Observer's Calendar for April 2026
Hosted by Chris Beckett & Shane Ludtke, two amateur astronomers in Saskatchewan who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and showing the public views through their telescopes. actualastronomy@gmail.com
This month in episode 528 we talk about 3 Comets, two of which may end up being very bright. We also touch on some colorful double and carbon stars. There are many spring spirals we help listeners find as well as the Lyrid Meteor shower. This month the Moon pairs with Spica, Antares and the planets and at mid-Month a very young moon is visible for some listeners.
Gamma Leonis - Colorful double star
02 - Full Moon - Spica and Moon less than 4° apart
03 - Morning Targets:
- Mercury Greatest Elongation 28° from Sun in morning sky - Spring elongations are a disappointment for Mercury
- Long Period Variable star max for R Serpentis
05 - Spot Sirius unaided eye before sunset this week. 88 Leonis colorful double star
06 and later - NGC 2903, large 9th mag. spiral in Leo
M48 - 6th mag. open cluster well placed at the meridian
Moon and Antares at dawn less than 4° apart
08 - NGC 3521 - well placed 9th magnitude spiral galaxy in S. Leo
09 - Carbon Star TU Geminorum is best
10 & later - Last Quarter Moon and Lunar X visible and 10th magnitude comet hanging out in Ursa Major
Mid-April - Moon, Mercury, Neptune, Mars, Saturn all congregate in morning sky - they are LOW
17 - New AND ***** Very Young Moon visible 14.5hrs old for us here in Canada, 6th magnitude so a real challenge but west of us esp. West coast it'll be 17hrs old… that's very doable
18 - Venus and Moon under 5° apart
22 - Lyrid Meteors - ZHR 18 - best in pre-dawn skies
23 - Last quarter Moon & Hipparchus ray visible on Moon
24 - Mons Pico & Pico Beta (the "Brothers Pico") visible south of Plato
Long period variable carbon star SS Vir @ 11:00 pm
25 - Moon occults Regulus this evening, 6:45pm for extreme S Canada & USA
25 - Eastern Mare 9:00 pm & Eyes of Clavius 9:00 pm
26 - Lunar Straight wall
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