Skywatch Line for Monday and Tuesday, April 28th and 29th, 2025

This is the Skywatch Line for Monday and Tuesday, April 28th and 29th. Written by Joe Slomka.

The Sun sets at 7:53 PM; night falls at 9:42. Dawn breaks at 4:03 AM and ends with sunrise at 5:52.

Monday’s Moon in Aries, barely rises in the East at 7:30 AM, appears 33 arc-minutes, less than 1% illuminated and sets at 10:35 PM; one hour before sunrise, the young Moon finds itself 4° northwest from the Pleiades. Tuesday, the Moon in Taurus, rises at 7:49 AM, 4° high, 33% lit and sets at 10:57 PM.

Uranus and Jupiter share western Taurus. Uranus is 2 ½° from the Sun, glows with 6th magnitude, appears 3 arc-seconds in size, and sets at 9:15 PM. Jupiter shines with minus 1st magnitude, rose at 8:16 AM, a large 34 arc-seconds, 23° high and sets at 11 PM.

Mars, in southern Cancer, is fading in 1° brightness, 6 arc-seconds, rose at 12:31 PM, 90% lit and sets at 3:27 AM.

Comet F2 (also known as Comet Swan) shines with 6th magnitude, 53% illuminated, rises at 6:01 AM, highest at 2:32 PM, 18°in the Northwest and sets at 10:57 PM.

Dawn is bright with planets. Venus, Neptune and Saturn are bunched in eastern Pisces; Venus is first and brightest, shining with minus 4th magnitude, it rises at 5:18 AM, highest at 11:20 AM, 37 arc-seconds, 27° illuminated, 10° high and sets at 5:23 PM. Saturn joins the crowd, rises at 4:33 AM, shines with 1st magnitude, highest at 10:21 AM, 16 arc-seconds and sets at 4:10 PM. Neptune also, shines with 8th magnitude, 2 arc-seconds, rises at 4:37 AM, highest at 10:33 AM, also just rising and sets at 4:28 PM.

Asteroid Vesta is still visible. Rising at 8 PM, highest at 2:26 AM, it is best seen at Dawn at 4:50 AM is 26° in the Southwest and sets at 8:11 AM.

The Lyrids are also visible in the Dawn, 80° high in the Southeast.

Recently, meteors have been in the news. First, there was the meteor explosion over the Russian town of Chelyabinsk. More recently, Internet videos showed a very large fireball over a city in Argentina. Last weekend, a baseball-sized rock fell through the roof of a private house in Wolcott, Connecticut; initially mistaken as debris from an airplane, it was definitely identified as a meteor by a Yale astronomer. This is the fifth meteor strike in Connecticut history, and the third house damaged.


Clear Skies Joe Slomka