Here is the broad scene, from east to west along the southern horizon, on this April evening.
See the end note about enlarging illustrations.
In this picture we show only the more conspicuous constellations. Leo is a dominant constellation of spring evenings; those of winter – Gemini, Orion, Auriga, Perseus – are still high but are setting earlier.
Venus and Mercury are out east from the setting Sun. (Distant Uranus, between them, is too dim to be visible to the naked eye in the twilight.) Jupiter is at conjunction with the Sun on Apr. 11. Mars crawls out toward its opposition of 2025 Jan. 16.
Watch Sirius, the brightest star. We’re going to put this Dog Star to use as a guide a few days from now.
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor. One way: right-click, and choose “View image” or “Open image in new tab”, then enlarge. Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.
I like the visual of Orion banging his club on the ceiling because the Twins, upstairs, are making too much noise.
“In the flat above lived a mother with two children, and the children ran around with their boots on and the mother was deaf.” –From “Julia the Clockmaker”
Venus and Mercury, and the location of Uranus circled, as seen from Fredericksburg, Virginia, on the evening of April 9, 2023:
http://www.starvergnuegen.com/astropix/2023/2023_04_09_planets_pdr.html
Mouse-over the links on the right to see different layers of annotation.
Incredibly clever!