April 9, 2025: Venus shines as the lone bright morning planet, while Jupiter and Mars dominate the evening sky. The gibbous moon appears near Denebola, the Lion’s tail.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:20 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:25 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
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Venus Summary Article
VENUS AS A MORNING STAR, 2025
Venus, Lone Morning Planet
As the lone bright planet visible during morning twilight, Venus shines from low in the eastern sky. The Morning Star is bright enough to be seen at 30 minutes before daybreak.
Through a telescope, the planet is 10% illuminated, a morning crescent phase.
Each morning the planet is slightly higher, gaining about two minutes of rising time compared to sunrise.
Mercury and Saturn are entering the morning sky, but they are awash in morning twilight masking their visibilities.
Bright Gibbous Moon, Leo
An hour after sundown, the bright gibbous moon is less than halfway up in the southeast. It is over 10° to Denebola’s lower right, the Lion’s tail. For this lunation, this is the last night that the moon is in front of Leo.
Regulus, the constellation’s brightest star is nearly 20° to the lunar orb’s upper right. Other stars in the constellation are covered in moonlight’s veil. Use a binocular to trace the shape of the Lion, a backwards question mark connected to a triangle. Return in about a week when the moon is not in the sky at this hour to see the animal’s shape without optical assistance.
Mars and Gemini
At this hour, Mars is high in the southwest, 5.3° to Pollux’s lower left, one of the Gemini Twins. The Red Planet is nearly at an imaginary line that begins at Castor, another Twin, and extends through Pollux. The planet’s eastward march continues, crossing the Cancer boundary on the 12th.
Bright Jupiter in West
Jupiter, in front of Taurus, is farther westward. At this hour, it is the brightest starlike body in the sky. Find it less than halfway up in the west. It rambles eastward, about halfway from Aldebaran, the Bull’s brightest star, and Elnath and Zeta Tauri, the horns.
During the night from Earth’s rotation, Jupiter sets after midnight, followed by Mars nearly three hours later and over three hours before sunrise.
The gibbous moon sets about an hour before daybreak and shortly after Venus rises.
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