Starry sky April: Now you can see Mercury – Panorama

Highlights: Nicolas Copernicus allegedly never saw Mercury himself and is said to have regretted it even on his deathbed. In fact, the elusive planet is not easy to spot because of its fast orbit and close proximity to the Sun. Now it offers the best observing conditions of the year: From April 15, Mercury appears low over the western horizon, half an hour after sunset. Binoculars help to find the faint spot of light at dusk. From April 20th to 25th it can also be seen with the naked eye. It then sets after 10 p.m., at about 10:40 p.m. at the end of the month, decreasing in brightness.

In the telescope, the celestial body, named after the Roman messenger of the gods, only appears as a tiny disc without any details. The planet has no atmosphere worth mentioning and resembles the moon on space probe images. Cratered on its surface and more or less unchanged for billions of years, its surface is a place of extremes, with temperatures ranging from minus 170 to plus 430 degrees depending on the amount of sunshine. At the poles, on the other hand, there is perpetual darkness and freezing cold at the bottom of some craters; there is probably water ice stored there. So far, only two unmanned vehicles have visited the hot and cold planet, which is around 4880 kilometers across, and photographed almost half of its landscape. The BepiColombo probe is currently on its way to it and is scheduled to enter orbit in 2025.

(Photo: Illustration: M. Rothe/Illustration: M. Rothe)

Stars and constellations: High in the northwestern sky, Capella blinks in the Wagoner, and its counterpart in the northeast is Arcturus in Bootes. The Big Dipper stands high in the firmament between the two images, while the striking figure of Cassiopeia flashes towards the horizon. In the southeast and south, Virgo and Leo are in the limelight, while the winter constellations Gemini, Canis Major and Lesser, and Orion are gradually preparing to set in the southwest.

Planets, Moon, Meteors: Only Mercury holds the position in the evening. Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn gather in parade in the morning eastern sky. Before sunrise, the four planets are just above the horizon, lined up like pearls on a string. The crescent of the waning moon joins them on April 25th. New moon is on the 1st, first quarter on the 9th, full moon on the 16th, last quarter on the 23rd and new moon again on April 30th. In the middle to the end of the month the Lyrids are active. These shooting stars reach their maximum on the evening of April 22nd. Only a good dozen meteors will flash per hour, but there may be a few bright specimens among them.

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