April 13, 2025: Venus’ retrograde ends today. Find it in the eastern sky during morning twilight. The Pink moon is in the west-southwest before sunrise, while Jupiter and Mars are visible after sunset.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:13 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:30 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
Retrograde Ends for Venus
Brilliant Venus shines through morning twilight low in the eastern sky. Thirty minutes before sunup, the Morning Star is about 10° above the horizon. Find a clear view looking toward it.
Venus stops retrograding today and begins to move eastward. For Mercury and Venus, retrograde occurs when they leave the western evening sky, pass between our planet and the sun, and reappear in the eastern predawn sky. Moving from east of the sun to west of the sun is retrograde.
While this seems confusing, when Mercury and Venus appear in the western evening sky after sunset, they are east of the sun. In the eastern predawn sky, rising before the sun, they are west of the central star. Retrograde is westward motion.
Retrograde Explained
Some sources have noted that Venus’ retrograde ended on the 10th or even yesterday. The dates depend on the coordinate systems that are used. On the 10th, the planet was farthest west for this apparition based on the equatorial coordinate system that is similar to the terrestrial coordinates using longitude and latitude.
For these articles, the ecliptic system, based on the solar system’s plane, is used because the planets move along this plane. For morning appearances, 5 a.m. Central Time is used to note the planet’s positions. In that coordinate system and at that time this morning, Venus is at its farthest west point in front of western Pisces, though the starfield is not visible during bright twilight.
This evening, look for Aldebaran, near Jupiter. It is over 75° east of Venus. After the star passes behind the sun and reappears in the eastern sky during early summer, Venus passes the star on July 13th. To overtake Aldebaran, Venus moves eastward over 1° from morning to morning compared to the celestial backdrop.
Mercury and Saturn are entering the morning sky as well, but they are too dim to shine through morning twilight.
Mercury reaches its largest angular separation from the sun, known as the greatest elongation, on the 21st. A binocular is needed to see it through morning’s light.
Morning Pink Moon
About 30 minutes earlier, the Pink Moon is nearly 10° up in the west-southwest. It was opposite the sun and at the Full moon phase less than 12 hours ago. The lunar orb is 4.0° to the left of Spica, Virgo’s brightest star.
Jupiter after Sunset
In the evening sky, bright Jupiter, shines from the west an hour after nightfall. The Jovian Giant is less than halfway from the western horizon to overhead. It outshines all starlike bodies at this hour. The planet rambles eastward in front of Taurus, over halfway from Aldebaran, the Bull’s brightest star, to Elnath and Zeta Tauri, the horns.
Mars Moves away from Castor and Pollux
Mars is over 40° to Jupiter’s upper left and nearly overhead. It marches eastward in front of Cancer. Mars crossed the Cancer-Gemini border last night. Three nights after it was along a line with Castor and Pollux, the Red Planet is east of that line.
Mars is less than 15° west of the Beehive star cluster and outside the same binocular field of view. At this level of twilight and bright moonlight tonight, it is easier to see over two hours after sundown in less than a week. Mars passes the cluster during early May.
Moon after Sunset
Two hours after nightfall, the bright Pink Moon is low in the east-southeast. It is 13° to Spica’s lower left, a wider separation than this morning.
During the night, from Earth’s rotation, the planets and moon are farther westward. Jupiter sets in the west-northwest around midnight, followed by Mars about three hours later. By tomorrow morning, the bright moon is in the western sky, traveling westward during the night.
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