2025, April 3-6: Waxing Moon Passes Mars

April 3-6, 2025:  After sunset, the moon approaches and passes Mars.  They are close together on the 5th, including a rare grouping of Mars, Moon, and Pollux.

Moon and Mars, September 5, 2020
Photo Caption – 2020, September 5: The moon and Mars, (Composite of two images)

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by Jeffrey L. Hunt

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April 2025: Moon and Mars

Mars from Hubble during 2018
Photo Caption – NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope photographed Mars on July 18, 2018, during a dust storm and near its closest approach to Earth since 2003. (NASA photo)

The waxing moon approaches and passes Mars during early April.  The Red Planet is high in the south-southwest after sundown.  It marches eastward in front of Gemini, near the Twins. On the evening of the 5th, a rare close grouping of Mars, Moon, and Pollux occurs.

Mars’ brightness continues to fade as our planet pulls away.  Earth passed between Mars and the sun on January 15th, when the gap was nearly 60 million miles. The Red Planet’s brightness depends on its distance from the sun and Earth. 

Mars at opposition
Chart Caption – September 19, 2024-May 17, 2025: The orbits of Earth and Mars are displayed as opposition occurs January 15, 2025. As Earth overtakes Mars, the Red Planet appears to pass bright stars in Gemini and retrograde.

Mars is approaching aphelion, the most distant point on its solar orbit on April 16th.  That distance is 154 million miles from the sun, nearly 70% more than Earth’s average solar distance.  During early April, its distance from Earth is over 110 million miles.  Those distance combinations, place it as one of the brighter bodies in the sky tonight.  Mars is nearly twice as bright as Pollux, the 12th brightest star visible from the mid-northern latitudes, to its upper right, and 85% as bright as Procyon, the sixth brightest, nearly 20° below it.

Sirius, the night’s brightest star, is below Mars and Procyon, about 20° above the southwest horizon.  It is over six times brighter than Mars.  Jupiter, less than halfway up in the western sky after sundown, outshines all the stars and planets this evening.

Highlights: April 3-6

Mars, Moon, April 3-6, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, April 3-6: The moon approaches and passes Mars. The Red Planet is near the Gemini Twins, Castor and Pollux.

During these four evenings, the moon waxes through the First Quarter phase and shows a waxing gibbous phase.  Here’s what to see an hour after sunset:

  • April 3: The thick waxing crescent phase, 38% illuminated, is high in the west-southwest, nearly midway from Jupiter to Mars.
  • April 4: The evening half-full moon, First Quarter, is high in the southwest, over 10° to Mars’ right. The Red Planet is 4.3° to Pollux’ lower left.
  • April 5: This is the night of the Mars-Moon conjunction.  The slightly gibbous moon, 60% illuminated, is high in the south-southwest, 3.3° to Mars’ upper left and 5.2° from Pollux.  Mars, Moon, and Pollux fit into a circle 5.5° in diameter and easily into the same binocular field.  A gathering of these three bodies at this distance is a rare event.  The next time these three fit into the same binocular field, although with a tight fit, is May 9, 2038.  On that evening, Jupiter is in the same view and it is occulted by the moon for sky watchers in the Americas.
  • April 6: The bright gibbous moon, 70% illuminated, is high in the south-southeast, over 15° to Mars’ left.  The Red Planet is 4.7° to Pollux’s lower left.

Watch the Dynamic Solar System

Mars, 2024-2025
Chart Caption – 2024-2025: Mars reaches opposition as it retrogrades in front of Gemini.

During the next few evenings, the moon appears farther eastward as the phase grows. Beginning on the 7th, the lunar orb starts three nights in front of Leo.  Mars marches farther eastward.  On April 10th, it crosses and imaginary line that begins at Castor and extends through Pollux. Watch the dynamic solar system in action.

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