Sparks entangled in the dawn

Venus, brightest of planets, is coming to her peak of brightness low in the morning sky, above Saturn and Mercury, and, far in the background, dim Neptune. The slender waning Moon slide down among them.

See the end note about enlarging illustrations. Arrows through the moving bodies show their movement (against the starry background) from 2 days earlier to 2 days later. Venus is exaggerated 150 times in size, to show its crescent shape. Saturn is exaggerated 150 times in size, to show the current attitude of its rings. The Moon and Sun are exaggerated 4 and 2 times in size. The Moon is shown at its apparent position for the location on Earth, displaced by parallax; the arrows are along its path as seen from the center of the Earth.

The resulting tangle of conjunctions includes three “trios” – clusters that become tight enough to fit within a 5-degree circle – gatherings of three bodies that to be within circles of less than 5 degrees – though two involve Neptune.

Here, from Astronomical Calendar 2025, is the sequence of events, with hours in Universal Time (EDT clock time is earlier by 5 hours in EDT, 6 in CDT, and so on).;

Apr 24 Thu  6    Venus brightest; magnitude -4.54°
Apr 25 Fri  2:23 Moon at ascending node; longitude 356.9°
Apr 25 Fri  3    Moon 2.02° NNW of Saturn; 38° from Sun in morn sky; mag -7.5, 1.2
Apr 25 Fri  4    Moon 2.12° SE of Venus; 37° from Sun in morn sky; mag -7.5, -4.5
Apr 25 Fri  6    Moon, Saturn, and Neptune within circle of diameter 3.73°; about 36° from the Sun in the morning sky; magnitudes -7, 1, 8
Apr 25 Fri  6    Moon, Venus, and Saturn within circle of diameter 4.09°; about 37° from the Sun in the morning sky; magnitudes -7, -5, 1
Apr 25 Fri  9    Moon 1.64° NNW of Neptune; 34° from Sun in morn sky; mag -7.3, 7.9
Apr 25 Fri 10    Moon, Venus, and Neptune within circle of diameter 4.86°; about 36° from the Sun in the morning sky; magnitudes -7, -5, 8
Apr 25 Fri 22    Moon 3.9° NNW of Mercury; 27° from Sun in morn sky; mag -6.7, 0.3

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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor.

One way: right-click, and choose ”View image” or ”Open image in new tab”, then enlarge. Or choose ”Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.

Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after publishing it.  If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version. Or, if you click ‘Refresh’ or press function key 5, you’ll see the latest version.