Bakersfield Night Sky — April 4, 2026
Tickets for the April 9 showing of “Incoming!” and the April 23 showing of “Supervolcanoes” (the last show of the spring season of shows) at the William M Thomas Planetarium are still available through the Vallitix site.
Last Wednesday, April 1 was a full moon. That was the first full moon after the spring equinox, which this year was on March 20. Therefore, we’d expect that tomorrow, April 5, the first Sunday after that April 1 full moon should be Easter and this year, that expectation works out. This rule of thumb doesn’t always work out though, since Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon after March 21. The Paschal Full Moon is the 14th day of the lunar month that occurs on or after March 21 and that lunar month cycle is set according to tables dating back to 325 A.D. that closely approximate the actual motions of the moon. Usually, the approximations match the astronomical facts but not always. Rather than diving further into the rabbit hole of Ecclesiastical dates vs. astronomical dates in order to understand all of the nuances of the differences between the two, I leave it to my calendar to tell me when Easter is going to be for that year.
As I write this, the launch of the first humans to experience all of the phases of the moon up close in a short time is still a future event. The earliest launch opportunity for the Artemis II mission carrying a crew of four astronauts around the moon is (was) Wednesday, April 1. The launch window will be open until April 6. The crew will spend one day orbiting Earth as they check out the key life support, communication, and navigation systems. If everything checks out, they’ll fire the rocket for a trans-lunar trek to the moon that’ll take almost four days. They will loop around the moon, getting up to 4600 miles beyond the moon. As they loop around the moon, the amount of the lit side the astronauts will see will constantly change, so they’ll see the moon go through a full sequence of phases in just a few days. They’ll also be the first humans to see the far side of the moon since the 1972 Apollo 17 mission—fifty four years ago!
The path they’ll take will have them on a four-day free-return trajectory (no fuel needed, letting Earth’s gravity bring them back). They’ll splash down 50 nautical miles (57.5 statute miles) off the coast of San Diego after traveling more than 595,000 nautical miles during their ten-day mission. For more details of the mission, including hour-by-hour timeline, see the Media Resources section of the Artemis II website .
Tonight the waning gibbous moon will be among the dim stars of Libra. Tomorrow night, April 5, it will be to the right of Antares at the heart of Scorpius. Last (or third) quarter phase will be the night of April 9/10 and the moon will be at the handle of the Teapot part of Sagittarius. New moon starts the phase cycle over again on April 17.
The two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, are visible in the evening sky, shining brighter than any other star in the night sky. Venus blazes away low in the west after sunset among the stars of Aries and Cetus. Jupiter will be high up in the south almost at the zenith on the left side of Gemini. The other three naked eye planets, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn rise shortly before sunrise in the east with Mercury leading the way, followed by Mars, and then Saturn. However, all three will be too close to the sun to see them. Well, possibly Mercury might just be barely visible in the pre-dawn twilight low in the east.
In the pre-dawn morning of April 15, shortly before sunrise, look east to see a very thin waning crescent moon, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn all clustered closely together (see the inset of the star chart above). Your clenched fist at arm’s length will be able to totally cover them up. Saturn will probably be too low to see it but the other three should be possible to see, especially if you use binoculars to draw them out from the dawn twilight. On the evening of April 18, the moon will have moved to the left of the sun to be a thin waxing crescent next to Venus in the evening sky.
I hope you’ll make it to one of the April shows at the Planetarium!
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Director of the William M Thomas Planetarium at Bakersfield College
Author of the award-winning website www.astronomynotes.com
