Last Minute Astronomy - April 2025 Edition

I’m Rob Webb, your Last Minute Astronomer, bringing astronomy to
normies and nerds, with little time to spare.  


April of 2025 brings us the annual Lyrid meteor shower, all the
naked-eye planets, and plenty of lunar close encounters. We’ll
start by talking about this month’s big events, then highlight
the naked eye planets, and finish up with the lunar phases, so
you can plan ahead better than me.  


 


April 22nd – LYRID METEOR SHOWER – Around 10-20
meteors per hour, the Lyrids are a minor shower, but a meteor
shower indeed.  And this year, the Moon will rise very early
in the morning, meaning we have clear skies until that point, and
even then, it’s not so bright. The shower is greatest on the
22nd, but you might see some on the 21st and 23rd as well. 
Just remember each meteor is a piece of debris left over from a
comet, and we’re crashing into it at over 100,000 miles per hour,
which crushes the atmosphere it hits, heating it up and causing
the bright flash.  There is no real best time to see these
this year, but the later, the better.  You never know when
you’ll see something awesome. 


 


Some advice for watching: 


- Find a dark location and lie down in a reclining chair or
something that insulates you from the ground.


- Check the weather to see if the skies will be clear.


- Adapt your eyes to the dark by staying away from light sources
or using a red light if you need to look at a star chart or not
trip over something.  


 


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