Adrian Dening's Stars Over Somerset

Wednesday, 23 April 2025 23:25

Monday 28th April to Sunday 4th May 2025

In the dawn twilight of Monday 28th, Venus will be an easy target to spot shining at a magnitude of -4.4 which is very bright. Around 5am, Venus will be located towards the east, with a harder-to-see, magnitude +0.8 Saturn a little below and to the right of it.

Using a telescope will show Venus as a beautiful crescent shape, but please be careful, as the Sun will be rising in the same direction shortly afterwards and you mustn't risk catching an accidental glimpse of it in your eyepiece!

Sticking with crescent shapes, look towards the west as darkness falls on the evening of Wednesday 30th, around 9pm, to see a 13%-lit waxing crescent Moon, with a magnitude -1.8 Jupiter just below and to the left of it. Further left and closer to the horizon will be the red giant star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion.

You may notice a bright star just above the Moon. This is Elnath that is a blue-white giant star and the beta star (or second-brightest) in the constellation of Taurus. Elnath has a magnitude of +1.65 making it the 27th brightest star in the night sky overall. By comparison, Betelgeuse shines at an average magnitude of +0.5 and is the 10th brightest - remember the magnitude scale works backwards!

Finally there are three good opportunities to spot the International Space Station next week, but you will need to be an early riser! Tuesday 29th April at 4.20am, Thursday 1st May at 4.20am and Saturday 3rd May at 4.21am. In each case, the ISS will appear in the west and spend over five minutes passing almost directly overhead, before disappearing towards the east.

www.starsoversomerset.com

Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium