Overview
- April’s full moon on April 2 determines Easter for April 5 and rises around 8:50 p.m. local time in major German cities, despite its “Pink Moon” name referring to spring blossoms rather than color.
- The Lyrid meteor shower becomes active from about April 16 and is expected to peak the night of April 21–22 with roughly 18 meteors per hour under dark, moonlight‑limited skies.
- Venus shines near magnitude −4 all month and passes just south of the Pleiades from April 22–24, with April 23 offering a simple binocular hop to spot faint Uranus beside the bright planet.
- The Moon sweeps past Jupiter on April 22, coming to about two degrees separation shortly after midnight when both sink low toward the western horizon.
- Small‑body prospects include comet 10P/Tempel brightening to roughly magnitude 11.5 as it crosses Scutum and passes near star cluster M26 on April 17, while sungrazer C/2026 A1 reaches perihelion on April 4 with any post‑perihelion evening visibility uncertain.