Starry night.

Eyes on the skies — April

Welcome to the Ontario Parks “Eyes on the Skies” series. This space (see what we did there?) will cover a wide range of astronomy topics with a focus on what can be seen from the pristine skies found in our provincial parks.

For those of us in Ontario, April is that transition month between winter and spring weather. The snows start to melt away, the lakes start to open up and, by month’s end, the first buds may appear on the trees.

On April 8 in the mid-afternoon, a rare astronomical event will occur for observers in Ontario: a total solar eclipse. If the eclipse will overlap with your visit to parks, please refer to this blog.

Here are our astronomical highlights for April 2024:

The sun

Sunrise and sunset times:

April 1 April 15 April 30
Sunrise 7:06 a.m. 6:42 a.m. 6:14 a.m.
Midday 1:29 p.m. 1:26 p.m. 1:23 p.m.
Sunset 7:54 p.m. 8:11 p.m. 8:32 p.m.

The moon

The moon has long captivated observers of all ages. April’s lunar phases of the moon occur as follows:

A chart of the moon's phases for April 2023, starting with Waxing Gibbour on April 2 and ending with a First Quarter moon on April 27

Did you know that many First Nations teachings, including those of the Anishinaabe and the Haudenosaunee people, use the back of a turtle’s shell as a lunar calendar?

The planets

After their incredible conjunction on March 1, the planets Jupiter and Venus are drifting further and further from each other (Venus moving higher in the western sky at sunset and Jupiter moving lower).

A picture of the night sky with Jupiter and Venus visible
Conjunction of Jupiter (left) and Venus (right). Note Jupiter’s moons Ganymede and Io

Venus continues its magnificent rise from the western horizon at sunset. By the end of April, it sets almost four hours after sunset, around 12:30 a.m. Seeing the spectacularly brilliant white Venus against the dark blue twilight backdrop is one of the more beautiful evening sights to behold.

Comets and meteor showers

April brings us the first decent meteor shower since April – the Lyrids (originating from the constellation of Lyra the Harp). While not as spectacular as the more famous Perseids and Geminids, the shower can easily provide up to 20 meteors an hour when seen best from a dark sky site and after 1:00 a.m. on April 23.

On any given night, in the dark skies of provincial parks, one might see as many as five to 10 meteors per hour, especially after midnight.

meteor shower

Featured constellations: the Bears and a Dragon

In last month’s blog, we discussed some of the constellations that are prominent in the spring: Leo the Lion, Cancer the Crab, and Coma Berenices (Queen Berenice of Egypt’s hair).

This month, we will focus on two of the most well-known, as well as one of the longest, constellations visible in the night sky: Ursa Major, the Great Bear (Big Dipper) and Ursa Minor, the Little Bear (Little Dipper).

An illustration of how the constellation "Hunters and the Bear" rotates around the North Star with the seasons

 

Find more information on this month’s constellations.

This completes our review of April skies.