April 2, 2026: Daylight increases across the northern hemisphere while the Full Moon passes Spica. Mercury’s elongation is difficult to see, but Venus and Jupiter dominate the evening sky.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:32 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:17 p.m. CDT. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
Venus as an Evening Star
Almanac for Sun, Moon, and Planets
Sun, Moon
Sun: At Chicago’s latitude, the sun is in the sky for 12 hours, 45 minutes. By month’s end, daylight gains 75 minutes as the sun appears farther northward and its arc is longer across the sky.
From Miami, daylight spans 12 hours, 27 minutes, gaining 40 minutes by April 30. Locations closer to the equator do not experience significantly longer daylight like those farther northward.
The sun is overhead at local noon near 5° north latitude.
In Anchorage, daylight lasts 13 hours, 30 minutes today, 45 minutes longer than in Chicago. It gains 149 minutes during April. Beginning April 18, there is no complete darkness at this latitude. The sun does not drop far enough below the horizon, even at midnight, for the sky to reach darkness.
In comparison, daylight decreases south of the equator. In Auckland, a latitude similar to Nashville, but south of the equator, daylight spans 11 hours, 39 minutes. It loses 61 minutes by month’s end.
Moon: The moon was at the Full (Pink) Moon phase yesterday at 9:12 a.m. Central Time. An hour before sunrise, the lunar orb is low in the west-southwest, 8.5° to Spica’s lower right, Virgo’s brightest star.
Tonight, two hours after sunset, the nearly-full moon is 2.6° to Spica’s lower right. A Full moon near Spica is a celestial milestone that spring has arrived.
The moon phases for April: Last Quarter on April 9, New on April 17, and First Quarter on April 23.
Yesterday’s Full moon marked Passover. It is also known as the Paschal moon and is used to determine the date for Easter. The sequence is normally: vernal equinox, then Full moon, with Easter on the following Sunday.
Planets Not Visible
Mercury reaches greatest elongation tomorrow, but visibility is poor. The ecliptic – plane of the solar system – makes a shallow angle with the eastern horizon, placing Mercury only 4° above the east-southeast horizon at 30 minutes before sunrise. It is in bright morning twilight. Spring mornings are very unfavorable for viewing Mercury.
Mars continues to slowly emerge from bright morning twilight after its solar conjunction nearly three months ago. This morning, the Red Planet rises only 35 minutes before sunrise. It is not visible until late spring.
Saturn and Neptune rise later than Mars after their solar conjunction last month. They are too close to the sun for visibility.
Uranus: The Tilted World is in the evening sky, but it is too low for easy visibility. For most sky watchers, the thicker atmosphere toward the horizon dims and blurs the planet. Those with large-aperture telescopes and low-power eyepieces can find it near the Pleiades star cluster.
Evening Planets
Venus: The Evening Star is easier to see each evening in the western sky. Stepping eastward in front of Aries, it is 10° up in the west at 45 minutes after sunset. Through a binocular, find Hamal 11° to the upper right. Venus is overtaking bright Jupiter, over 70° to the upper left.
Jupiter: After Venus, the Jovian Giant is the second brightest starlike body in the sky tonight. An hour after sunset, Jupiter is high in the southwest near the Gemini Twins – Castor and Pollux. It slowly rambles eastward, considerably slower than Venus.
As daylight advances in the northern hemisphere, find the Full moon in the west-southwest before sunrise and in the east-southeast after sunset near Spica. Brilliant Venus shines from the western sky after sunset, followed by Jupiter high in the southwest.
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