Observers in the UK with a clear sky at dusk should try to locate Venus low in the western sky an hour after sunset. The 3-day-old slim crescent Moon acts as a convenient guide, located some 12½ degrees (or half the span of an outstretched hand at arm’s length) to the upper left of the brightest planet. Conspicuous star Aldebaran lies in the same low-power binocular field of view as the Moon too. Note that the size of the lunar crescent has been enlarged for clarity. AN graphic by Ade Ashford.Observers in Western Europe should make the most of fine weather to locate Venus low in the western sky an hour after sunset, particularly on Wednesday 18 April when the 3-day-old slim crescent Moon acts as a convenient guide, located some 12½ degrees (or half the span of an outstretched hand at arm’s length) to the upper left of the brightest planet.
Stargazers in the British Isles with a clear sky around 10pm this evening should note the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) forming a right-angled triangle with Venus and the Moon in the deepening twilight, but don’t leave it much later as the brightest planet sets around 10:43pm as seen from the heart of the UK (stated times are in BST).
Prominent first-magnitude star Aldebaran lies in the same low-power binocular field of view as the Moon too. In the small hours of 19 April, the waxing lunar crescent actually occults (passes in front of) Aldebaran as seen from central and northern Russia, north and eastern Scandinavia, the north of Greenland and northernmost Canada.
Jupiter may be two months past opposition, but it’s still big, bright and high to the south before 9 pm from the centre of the British Isles. The Galilean moons, their shadows and the Great Red Spot are all on show — plus mutual phenomena of the moons.
As it entered the Saturn system on June 11, 2004, Cassini passed Phoebe, the largest of Saturn’s outer or “irregular” moons, at an altitude of just 2,068 kilometres.
A giant mound near the Moon’s south pole appears to be a volcanic structure unlike any other found on the lunar surface, according to new research by Brown University geologists. The formation, known as Mafic Mound, stands about 800 metres tall and 75 kilometres (47 miles) across, smack in the middle of a giant impact crater known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin.
