Astronomical events of April 2023

April's astronomical events are among the most interesting because they contain a beautiful meteor shower (Lyrids), immediately followed by another, much less well-known - Pipids. And this year also in some places around the world you can see a hybrid solar eclipse. To all of the above, beautiful conjunctions of the planets will be added.

Let's start with the full moon

We will see him shortly after the start of the month, April 6th. April's Full Moon or "Pink Moon" is a magical sight in the night sky not to be missed. At this time, the surface of the natural satellite of the Earth is completely illuminated by the Sun and there is a feeling that it is much larger than usual.

Hybrid solar eclipse

This year, the April astronomical events are also accompanied by a hybrid solar eclipse. That is, an eclipse in which the Moon is too close to the Earth to completely block the Sun.

For this reason, in some parts of the world it looks like a total eclipse, and in others it looks like an eclipse. In addition, in some places it will not be visible. This time, the southern part of the Indian Ocean will be a good place, from where it will move to Western Australia and southern Indonesia. A partial eclipse, according to a NASA map, can be seen almost throughout Indonesia and Australia.

Two star showers, the main characters of the astronomical events of April

The kings of the April astronomical events are the lyrids. This meteor shower, coming from the debris of comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, can be seen between April 16 and 25. However, its peak falls on the night of April 22-23.

This is an average rain, at the peak of which about 20 meteors fall per hour. Also, this year it takes place a couple of days after the new moon, so the dark skies will be much more conducive to the spectacle.

On the other hand, much less known is the Pi-pupida rain. In your case, it comes from the remnants of comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup and is estimated to peak on April 24th. However, it should be noted that this meteor shower can not be seen every year. The last years it could be detected were 2018 and 2019. There are no forecasts for this year, but it's worth looking at the sky. Eventually, there will still be lyrids in the firmament.

Moon satellites in the sky

As usual in astronomical events, on some days the Moon will appear in conjunction with certain planets. Among the most interesting dates are April 16, 21, 23 and 26, when we will see her along with Saturn, Mercury, Venus and Mars, respectively.