Thursday April 3 to Thursday April 10

The First Quarter Moon is Saturday April 5.  The Lunar X will be visible then. daylight savings ends on the 6th. Jupiter and Mars are visible in the evening sky. Jupiter is past opposition and is visible all evening long, forming a line with the stars Aldebaran and Elnath. The Moon joins the line-up with Jupiter on the 3rd. Mars is high in the early evening sky and is close to the Moon on the 5th. Look for the constellation Corona Borealis in the morning skies, the blaze star T Coronae Borealis (TCrB) may go Nova eventually.  Saturn, Venus and Mercury are visible low in the morning twilight.

The First Quarter Moon is Saturday April 5. The Lunar X will be visible then (see table below for time the Lunar X starts to be visible add one hour for daylight savings time). daylight savings ends on the 6th.

Date	UT	AEST	ACST	AWST
Apr 5	12:43	22:43	22:17	20:43

Eastern twilight sky on the morning of Saturday, April 5 as seen from Adelaide at 06:37 ACDST (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Saturn is visible low in the twilight forming a line with Mercury and Venus. You may need binoculars to see Mercury. 

The inset is the telescope view of Venus at this time.  (click to embiggen).

 

 

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise). 

 

North-western sky on the morning of Saturday, April 5 as seen from Adelaide at 06:07 ACDST (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen)

If you look to the North at astronomical twilight (90 minutes before sunrise), you will see a prominent bright orange star, Arcturus, if you look downwards and to the right you will see a dainty circlet of stars. Corona Borealis, the northern crown. The blaze star T CrB is located on the right-hand side to the circlet, where the line of stars turns down, there are no other bright stars in the region, so when it erupts it will be easily visible. Viewing tips at my T CrB post.

 

 

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise).

 

North-western evening sky on Thursday, April 3 as seen from Adelaide at 20:32 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset), Jupiter is in the north-west forming a line with the stars Aldebaran and Elnath and the crescent Moon.

The inset is the telescope view of  Jupiter at this time.  (click to embiggen). 

 

 Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Northern sky on Saturday, April 5 as seen from Adelaide at 20:29 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Mars forms a line with Castor and Pollux. The first quarter Moon forms a triangle with Mars and Pollux. There is also an occultation of Iota Geminorum.

 

The insets are (clockwise) the telescope view of  Mars at this time.  The View of the moon as Iota Geminorum reappears at 20:25 ACDST and the appearance of the Lunar X at 23:00 ACDST  (click to embiggen).   

 

 

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset). 

 

Whole sky on Saturday, Saturday, April 5 as seen from Adelaide at 20:38 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen).

Jupiter is in the north-west.  Mars is in the north. 

 

Orion  the hunter is lowering in the north-west.

 

The Southern Cross is rising in the Southern sky.  The moon is waxing and the fainter clusters and nebula are becoming harder to see.     

 

 Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

 

 

Mercury returns to the morning twilight.

Venus returns to the morning twilight. 

Mars is high in the evening sky. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on January the 16th. Mars is close to the first quarter Moon on the 5th.

Jupiter is high in the the north-western evening sky when the sky is fully dark. Jupiter forms a line with the stars Aldebaran and Elnath. The Moon joins the line-up Jupiter on the 3rd.

Saturn is low in the morning the twilight. 

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.


 

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/