Monday 13th to Sunday 19th April 2026
By the time you hear this broadcast, the Artemis II mission will hopefully have returned safely to Earth, paving the way for what will be the first Moon landing in over fifty years! Unlike the crew of Artemis II, we will never see the far side of our celestial neighbour first-hand, but you can have some fun making observations of the side that always faces us.
If you are up around 6am on the morning of Thursday 16th, just as it's getting light, you could try to spot a very thin 2%-lit waning crescent Moon rising above the eastern horizon. Because it is "waning" or heading towards a New Moon, it will be the left hand edge of the Moon that is illuminated.
A New Moon occurs on Friday 17th, so if you go back outside and look towards the west around
To the left of the Moon, Venus will be easy to spot, shining at a magnitude of -3.8 which is very bright.
The Moon orbits around us, so on different nights it appears in different parts of the night sky compared to everything else. Repeat the observing experiment at
If you struggle to see them, stay out until more like
www.starsoversomerset.com
Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2026
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