Namibia's night sky in April: Mars & Moon say ‘hello’ to each other

Spoiler alert for shooting star fans: From 16 to 25 April, the Lyrid meteor shower guarantees the sighting of one of these shining streaks in the sky. On 22 and 23 April, you can expect to see up to 18 shooting stars per hour.

The centre of this shower lies above the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra - hence the name. Lyra rises at around 1.00 am and is in the north at around 5.00 am.

Otherwise, the moon and two planets provide exciting events in the starry sky in April. On 5 April, the Moon and Mars say ‘hello’ to each other: they are very close. As the moon is about half its size and Mars is very bright, this is easy to observe (see TimeAndDate.com ; location: Windhoek).

Mars is already high in the sky at sunset and sets after midnight. Jupiter is ahead of it and says goodbye at around 9.45 pm. Uranus is even lower (setting at around 8.15 pm) and cannot be seen with the naked eye.

The other planets you can only spot in the morning - and then only briefly. Saturn (5.00 a.m.), Mercury (5.10 a.m.) and Neptune (5.20 a.m.) rise in quick succession, just about two hours before the sun. Saturn is difficult to see and Neptune is barely visible, even with a telescope.

Venus: from evening to morning ‘star’

Obviously: Venus is not a star, i.e. not a self-luminous sun. It is a planet that reflects sunlight. Seen from Earth, however, it is the third brightest celestial body after the sun and moon.

It is popularly known as the morning and evening star. Sometimes it shines after sunset in the evening sky, sometimes before sunrise in the morning sky. At the end of March, it has passed in front of the sun on its orbit as seen from the earth.

That's why it didn't appear in the starry sky for days. Now it appears again. But no longer in the evening, but early in the morning: it rises in the east at around 4.50 am and fades into the twilight from 6.45 am.

Sun and moon

Sunrise on 1 April is around 7.00 a.m., sunset shortly before 7.00 p.m. On 30 April, the sun rises at around 7.10 am and sets at around 6.30 pm. The nights therefore become longer.

The moon phases in April: first quarter 5/04, full moon 13/04, last quarter 21/04, new moon 27/03. At the beginning and end of April, the moonlight is therefore the least disturbing when observing the stars and planets.

You can find out more about the Namibian starry sky in April in the Astro-News by Lutz von Dewitz in the news section on the website of the Namibia Scientific Society.

Sven-Eric Stender