April 28, 2026: Venus moves past Aldebaran and the Hyades while overtaking Jupiter. The nearly full moon approaches Spica in the southeastern sky.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:51 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:46 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
Venus, Jupiter After Sunset
Venus and Jupiter continue to show their motion against the stars in the western sky after sunset. The nearly full moon approaches Spica in the southeastern sky.
Venus
Brilliant Venus outshines all starlike bodies in the sky tonight. It can be seen in the west-northwest as early as 30 minutes after sunset, shining through the colors of bright twilight. By an hour after sunset, the Evening Star is nearly 15° above the west-southwest horizon.
Venus steps eastward in front of Taurus, 7.5° to the right of Aldebaran, the Bull’s brightest star. Through a binocular, find the “V” of Taurus, marked by the bright star and the Hyades star cluster, which outline the bovine’s head. This nearly fills the entire field of view. Tonight, Venus passes 6.5° to the upper right of Gamma Tauri (γ Tau), a Hyades star at the point of the V. This is a snug fit in a binocular.
In the western sky, conjunctions and close approaches occur when the faster-moving planet is to the upper right or lower left of the star or slower-moving planet. While the conjunction appears to occur when the planet is to the right of the star, like with Aldebaran tonight, Venus is closest to this star on May 1. On that date, it is 6.4° to the upper right, over 1° closer than tonight’s separation.
Tonight, and for another night or two, notice that Venus and Sirius, the bright star in the southwest, are at nearly the same altitude — the same height above the horizon. There is no special alignment between them, only a visually striking pairing.
Watch Venus pass the Hyades stars. It passes 3.5° to Epsilon Tauri’s upper right in two evenings.
Jupiter
Venus overtakes Jupiter, over 40° to the upper left and over halfway up in the western sky. The Jovian Giant is the second brightest starlike body in tonight’s sky, but noticeably fainter than Venus.
The Jovian Giant is 8.0° to Pollux’s lower left, one of the Gemini Twins. Use a binocular as Jupiter approaches the star Wasat, 0.6° to the upper right. Their conjunction occurs in two nights when their separation is slightly closer than tonight.
Moon Nears Spica
Farther eastward, the bright gibbous moon, 94% illuminated, is about one-third of the way from the southeast horizon to overhead and nearly 15° to Spica’s upper right, Virgo’s brightest star. During the night, the lunar orb is south before midnight and sets in the west about an hour before sunrise. At that time, Spica is about 5° above the west-southwest horizon.
Each clear evening, watch Venus and Jupiter appear farther eastward against their respective star fields, while the moon waxes through the full moon phase.
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