April 12th: New Moon

While a new moon is a monthly occurrence and may not seem very interesting, it’s one of the best nights for stargazing. Without the moon’s illuminating presence, April 12th will be the darkest night of the month, creating a perfect opportunity to study various star clusters and galaxies that are usually too faint to be seen in the moonlight.

April 22nd: Peak of Lyrids Meteor Shower

The Lyrids Meteor Shower, one of the oldest known meteor showers, has been observed since 687 BC when Chinese astronomers reported the first recorded sighting of this natural phenomenon. While the Lyrids are a typical meteor shower, producing about 5 to 20 meteors per hour, brighter meteors called Lyrid “fireballs” can also be seen occasionally during its annual cosmic dance. Its meteors are dusty trails of debris from Comet Thatcher and are known for their speed and brightness, especially between moonset and dawn. They will originate from the constellation Lyra but will still be visible anywhere in the sky. The meteor shower will occur from April 16th to the 25th, and it will reach its peak during the night of the 22nd. However, the shower may be difficult to view because of this year’s glare of the nearly full moon blocking out many of the meteors.

April 27th: Super Pink Moon

Despite its name, a super pink moon unfortunately isn’t actually pink in color. A full moon that occurs in April is known as the pink moon in North America because of the pink wildflower Phlox subulata, more commonly known as moss pink, that often blooms during this month. Although April 27th’s moon doesn’t seem all that special anymore, it is still a supermoon, which is a full moon that happens when the moon is at its closest orbit point to Earth. When the moon approaches the point known as the perigee, it appears slightly larger and brighter than usual. The difference in the appearance of the moon may be difficult to detect, but a supermoon is still a considerably rare celestial event, only present a few times a year at most.