"Celebrate National Astronomy Day on Saturday, April 28th, and; The Moon Pays a Last Visit to Saturn and Jupiter!"

Scheduled air date: 2001 Apr 16-22

The Waxing Crescent Moon will approach the giant planets Saturn and Jupiter next week, appearing between them on the evening of April 25th.  The separation between these two bright planets in our skies is slowly increasing, growing from 11° at the beginning of this week, to more than 12° by the end of next week.  Both will soon be lost in the Sun's glare, and won't appear together near the Pleiades again for nearly sixty years!
(Shown about 45 minutes after sunset for mid-Northern latitudes.)

If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.

Illustrations on this page were created using TheSky Astronomy Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000 and Windows Me. Some post-processing may have occurred. Copyright © 1999-2000 by Software Bisque, Inc.