Starwatch: time for the moon to bid farewell to brilliant Venus

Starwatch chart 27 April 2020 the moon and Venus

The waxing crescent moon passes Venus again this week. It’s been a regular monthly occurrence this year, but it’s so pleasing to the eye that it wins hands down for the one thing to make sure you look out for this week. This month, the conjunction takes place near the time of Venus’s great illumination. From here on in, Venus will become dimmer as it moves inexorably towards the sun to pass between it and our planet on 3 June. The new moon will be closest to Venus on the evenings of 25 and 26 April. It will be a thin crescent on both nights. The chart shows the view looking west from London at 21:00 BST on 27 April. On this night, around 20% of the moon’s surface will be illuminated. This is the evening that Venus will be close to its maximum brightness for this current apparition. Viewers in the southern hemisphere should look for the conjunction in the north-western sky after sunset.