Venus, Jupiter, Lyrid meteors and some close approaches
by Mark Phillips
Using data from Dominic Ford’s in-the-sky.org and other sources
Venus in the evening
Venus will be an unmistakeable, dazzling object low in the west in the evening throughout April and on into the summer. Its separation from the Sun increases as does its brightness, reaching highest altitude in the evening sky on 14 May.
Jupiter getting lower
We have been treated to some excellent views of Jupiter this Winter but now it starts to get much lower in the evenings, although still only setting around 03:30 BST.
Lyrid meteor shower 2026
Wed, 22 Apr 2026
The Lyrid meteor shower will be active from 16 April to 25 April, producing its peak rate of meteors around 22 April.
A peak rate of around 16 meteors per hour could be seen. The Moon, in Gemini, will be around first quarter phase at the shower’s peak, presenting minimal interference.
Conjunction of the Moon and Venus
19 Apr 2026
The 2 day old Moon will pass 4°45′ to the north of Venus making a nice evening pairing.
The Moon will be at mag -9.6 in the constellation Aries, and Venus at mag -3.9 in the neighbouring constellation of Taurus.
Close approach of the Moon and Jupiter
Thu, 23 Apr 2026
The Moon and Jupiter will make a close approach, passing within 3°29′ of each other. The Moon will be 5 days old. The Moon will be at mag -11.7; and Jupiter will be at mag -2.1. Both objects will lie in the constellation Gemini.
Full Moon
2 April known as the “Pink Moon”
New Moon
17 April
M51 ASERO / Pat Devine
The Whirlpool Galaxy is well placed
The Whirlpool Galaxy M51 (NGC 5194; mag 8.4) in Canes Venatici will be well placed in the evening sky in the coming weeks. From Edinburgh, it is visible all night because it is circumpolar.
The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a (M51a) or NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. It is 31 million lightyears (9.5 megaparsecs/Mpc) away and 23.58 kiloparsecs (76,900 ly) in diameter.
William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, employing a 72-inch (1.8 m) reflecting telescope at Birr Castle, Ireland, found that the Whirlpool possessed a spiral structure, the first “nebula” to be known to have one
Wikipedia
The chart shows the sky at 22:00 BST on 15 April 2026.
Click on an item to expand for more information:
Data from in-the-sky.org
| Comet name | Mag | Constellation | Separation from Sun | Trend | Absolute magnitude last updated |
| C/2026 A1 (MAPS) | 0.8 | Cetus | 21° | Brightening | 3 Mar 2026 |
| C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) | 5.5 | Pegasus | 31° | Brightening | 3 Mar 2026 |
| 88P/Howell | 9.3 | Aquarius | 39° | Fading | 1 Apr 2018 |
| C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) | 11.3 | Taurus | 60° | Fading | 3 Feb 2026 |
| C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) | 12.1 | Musca | 116° | Fading | 3 Mar 2026 |
| 141P-A/Machholz | 12.2 | Pisces | 7° | Brightening | Unknown |
| 141P/Machholz | 12.4 | Pisces | 9° | Brightening | 1 Apr 2018 |
| 63P/Wild | 13.0 | Auriga | 90° | Brightening | 1 Aug 2013 |
| 235P/LINEAR | 13.0 | Ophiuchus | 109° | Brightening | 3 Jan 2026 |
| 168P/Hergenrother | 13.4 | Aquarius | 23° | Brightening | 15 Jan 2013 |
| A/2025 Y1 | 13.5 | Virgo | 159° | Brightening | Unknown |
| P/2006 F4 (Spacewatch) | 13.6 | Ophiuchus | 118° | Brightening | Unknown |
| C/2026 B2 (Sun-Gao) | 14.0 | Pegasus | 36° | Fading | Unknown |
| C/2025 T1 (ATLAS) | 14.0 | Aquarius | 41° | Fading | 3 Feb 2026 |
| P/2010 H2 (Vales) | 14.0 | Sagittarius | 87° | Brightening | Unknown |
| P/2019 Y2 (Fuls) | 14.1 | Gemini | 100° | Fading | Unknown |
| 69P/Taylor | 14.3 | Cetus | 19° | Brightening | Unknown |
| C/2025 D1 (Groeller) | 14.3 | Draco | 84° | Brightening | Unknown |
| C/2025 L1 (ATLAS) | 14.5 | Bootes | 133° | Fading | Unknown |
| 240P/NEAT | 14.7 | Auriga | 69° | Fading | 3 Jan 2026 |
| C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) | 14.8 | Aquila | 62° | Brightening | Unknown |
| 107P/Wilson-Harrington | 14.9 | Ophiuchus | 116° | Brightening | Unknown |
| 218P/LINEAR | 15.2 | Capricornus | 59° | Fading | 17 May 2015 |
| 141P-D/Machholz | 15.2 | Aquarius | 23° | Brightening | Unknown |
| 93P/Lovas | 15.2 | Pisces | 18° | Brightening | 18 Nov 2007 |
Lyrid meteor shower 2026
Wed, 22 Apr 2026
The Lyrid meteor shower will be active from 16 April to 25 April, producing its peak rate of meteors around 22 April.
A peak rate of around 16 meteors per hour could be seen. The Moon, in Gemini, will be around first quarter phase at the shower’s peak, presenting minimal interference. The parent body responsible for creating the Lyrid shower has been identified as comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher).
You can see any meteors captured by our cameras on the Meteorcams page.
| Date | Age of Moon | Sun | Moon | ||||||||
| Rise | Culm | Set | Constellation | Rise | Culm | Set | Constellation | ||||
| 2026 | Mar | 31 | 12 days | 06:42 | 13:15 | 19:49 | Pisces | 19:37 | 00:24 | 06:15 | Virgo |
| 2026 | Apr | 07 | 19 days | 06:23 | 13:13 | 20:03 | Pisces | 03:28 | 05:48 | 08:08 | Ophiuchus |
| 2026 | Apr | 14 | 26 days | 06:05 | 13:11 | 20:18 | Pisces | 05:28 | 11:26 | 17:45 | Pisces |
| 2026 | Apr | 21 | 04 days | 05:48 | 13:09 | 20:32 | Aries | 08:39 | 18:13 | 02:47 | Gemini |
| 2026 | Apr | 30 | 13 days | 05:27 | 13:08 | 20:50 | Aries | 21:26 | 00:30 | 04:42 | Virgo |
Canes Venatici is a small faint constellation introduced by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century.
It is visible in the northern sky around April, and was previously part of Ursa Major.
While its stars are not prominent, it is a rich hunting ground for galaxies, including the famous face-on spiral galaxy M51. It also contains the globular cluster M3.
It lies close to the huge Virgo supercluster of galaxies, in a part of the sky well away from the Milky Way where there is little obscuration from nearby material. This makes it is a good place to observe the distant universe.
Canes Venatici is Latin for ‘running dogs’, and it is often represented as the dogs of Boötes the herdsman.
| Stars | Open Clusters | Globular Clusters | Galaxies |
| Cor Caroli (mag 2.9) | Messier 3 (mag 6.3) | Messier 94 (mag 8.2) | |
| Chara (mag 4.3) | NGC 5194 (mag 8.4) | ||
| 24-CVn (mag 4.7) | Messier 51 (mag 8.4) | ||
| AO CVn (mag 4.7) | Messier 63 (mag 8.6) | ||
| AW CVn (mag 4.8) | Messier 106 (mag 9.3) | ||
| 5-CVn (mag 4.8) | NGC 4631 (mag 9.3) | ||
| 25-CVn (mag 4.9) | NGC 4449 (mag 9.4) | ||
| HIP 64540 (mag 4.9) | NGC 5195 (mag 9.6) | ||
| BH CVn (mag 4.9) | NGC 4490 (mag 9.7) | ||
| 6-CVn (mag 5.0) | NGC 4214 (mag 9.8) | ||
| BK CVn (mag 5.1) | NGC 5005 (mag 9.8) | ||
| 14-CVn (mag 5.2) | NGC 4395 (mag 10.3) | ||
| 3-CVn (mag 5.3) | NGC 4244 (mag 10.6) | ||
| Y CVn (mag 5.3) | NGC 5033 (mag 10.7) | ||
| HIP 61309 (mag 5.4) | NGC 4618 (mag 10.8) | ||
| α¹-CVn (mag 5.5) | NGC 4111 (mag 10.8) | ||
| HIP 67250 (mag 5.5) | NGC 5353 (mag 11.0) | ||
| 23-CVn (mag 5.6) | NGC 4242 (mag 11.0) | ||
| HIP 67384 (mag 5.6) | NGC 4145 (mag 11.2) | ||
| HIP 63916 (mag 5.6) | NGC 4217 (mag 11.2) | ||
| 2-CVn (mag 5.7) | NGC 5377 (mag 11.3) | ||
| 19-CVn (mag 5.8) | NGC 4220 (mag 11.3) | ||
| HIP 64927 (mag 5.8) | NGC 5354 (mag 11.4) | ||
| TU CVn (mag 5.9) | NGC 4151 (mag 11.5) | ||
| HIP 62641 (mag 5.9) | NGC 4914 (mag 11.6) | ||
| HIP 65550 (mag 5.9) | IC 4182 (mag 11.6) | ||
| HIP 67194 (mag 5.9) | NGC 5395 (mag 11.7) | ||
| HIP 67605 (mag 5.9) | NGC 5371 (mag 11.7) | ||
| HIP 67782 (mag 5.9) | NGC 5297 (mag 11.8) | ||
| 17-CVn (mag 5.9) | NGC 5198 (mag 11.8) |
Use the chevrons to choose the month:
Much of the material is provided with thanks to Dominic Ford on his excellent site in-the-sky.org.