Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
Alfiya Nesterenko, head of the Vega observatory at NSU, spoke about objects that can be observed near the Moon in April 2025:
Since the position of the Moon in the sky is known, finding objects near which the Moon passes in the sky becomes a simple task for anyone who takes the time to look at the evening sky.
On April 1, Uranus will be near the crescent Moon, the distance at the moment of maximum approach: 4°40′. But only those in the central regions of the country will be able to see such an approach. In Novosibirsk, it will be morning. The time of approach: 02:47 GMT, and the time zone of Novosibirsk is GMT 7 hours.
Uranus is a small and distant planet in the Solar System, with a magnitude of 5.8. Uranus can be observed with binoculars or a telescope in the constellation Aries.
Around 4am on April 1st, there will be a very beautiful star cluster called the Pleiades near the Moon. If you look at the Pleiades through binoculars, you can see the outline of a small ladle with a short handle. The light from the crescent Moon will be small, so you can choose the shutter speed for photography so that both the Pleiades and the crescent Moon are distinguishable.
This is the star cluster M52, one of a large number of open clusters in the sky, but quite bright and compact. Many star clusters are interesting because new stars are born in their depths. And this haze-veil that covers the stars of the Pleiades is the “material” from which stars are born.
The photo of the Pleiades cluster, taken in 2023 by Mikhail Maslov, an engineer at our observatory, was taken using a lens with a focal length of 77 mm, which gave an increase of about 2.3 times. This is a summary image of the object, assembled from 54 shots, with an exposure of 15 seconds.
The time of the closest approach of the Moon and the Pleiades constellation is 20:28 GMT, the minimum separation is 0°36′, the Pleiades (magnitude 1.2) are visible without binoculars with good vision, and with binoculars the cluster is distinguishable for any observer. The Pleiades are located in the constellation Taurus, not far from them you can easily find Alpha Tauri, the brightest star of the constellation, which is called Aldebaran, which in Arabic means “follower”: the star in the night sky makes its way after the Pleiades.
On April 5, the Moon will be close to Mars, time of closest approach: 19:04-19:49 GMT, minimum separation – 2°12′.
The brightness of Mars will be 0.5 magnitude, it will be visible in the sky with the naked eye in the constellation Gemini, next to two stars on the same line – Castor and Pollux.
During the few days before and after April 10, there will be a conjunction of Mercury (1.0 star) and Saturn (1.2 star), which will approach to a minimum distance at 12:00 GMT (in Novosibirsk it will be 7 am), the distance at the moment of approach: 2°06′. Saturn will be in the constellation Aquarius, and Mercury – in the constellation Pisces. At the latitude of Novosibirsk, this conjunction will not be visible.
On April 13, there will be a full moon, during which the moon will be at its smallest disk size, so this full moon will be a “micro moon.” The moon will appear 5.1% smaller and 11% dimmer than during a normal full moon. This is because the moon will be at the farthest point in its orbit, called apogee.
Also in April, it will be possible to observe the Lyrid meteor shower, which reaches its maximum annually on April 22-23. Mikhail Maslov, an engineer at the Vega observatory of NSU, spoke about this in more detail:
The Lyrid meteor shower is associated with comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher), which orbits the Sun every 422 years. The comet’s orbit is close enough to Earth’s orbit that the material it ejects produces meteor activity each year, with a maximum of about 15-20 meteors per hour.
The average annual zenith hourly number of Lyrid meteors at maximum, according to the International Meteor Organization IMO, is 18 meteors. At the same time, the solar longitude of the moment of maximum varies slightly from year to year, and for 2025 it falls on the period from 10:30 to 18:00 UT on April 22 (for Novosibirsk time this is from 17:30 on April 22 to 1:00 on April 23).
The Lyrid shower is known for its bursts of activity in some years. The most recent such burst occurred in 1982, when hourly activity briefly reached 90 meteors. Also in the 20th century, bursts of activity up to about 100 meteors per hour were noted in 1922 and 1945. The results of calculations by Finnish researcher Esko Lyytinen show that these bursts are associated with the Earth passing through fresh cometary material ejected by the comet one revolution back (with a trail of one revolution). The same calculations indicate that the next bursts of the shower’s activity are likely in 2039 and 2040.
Thus, no unusual manifestations of Lyrid activity are predicted for 2025 and typical activity for this stream is expected.
The coordinates of the Lyrid radiant are α = 271°, δ = 34°, it is located in the sky between the constellations Lyra and Hercules, somewhat closer to the constellation Lyra, after which the stream got its name Lyrids. The radiant of the stream rises highest in the sky during the dark time of day towards morning, although at the end of April at the latitude of Novosibirsk the nights are already quite short, therefore even in the evening it is already quite high in the sky, at an altitude of approximately 25-30°, therefore the Lyrids can be observed as soon as it becomes dark enough, starting at approximately 11 pm and then throughout the night.
The speed of entry of Lyrid meteors into the Earth’s atmosphere is 49 km/s, i.e. meteors of this stream can be classified as medium-speed. The Moon will be in the waning phase and will rise only at about 5 am, so it will create practically no interference for observations. At the same time, to ensure better conditions for observations, it is necessary to move away from large settlements and other sources of light pollution by a distance of 50-100 km; under a dark country sky, the number of meteors observed will be several times greater.
Although the Lyrids are not the most active meteor shower, their active time is in the spring, when there are practically no other significant meteor showers, so for meteor watchers they are a good target and a rare opportunity to see quite a large number of meteors in the first half of the year.
Photo of the Pleiades cluster, taken in 2023 by Mikhail Maslov, an engineer at the Vega Observatory of NSU.
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