Lighting Advice for Borrego Springs
You can help protect Borrego's night sky from the increasing problem of light pollution.
Making small improvements to lighting can lead to huge improvements in the quality of our dark night sky.
courtesy Yorkshire Dales UK National Park Authority
Sky Calendar: April — May 2025
By Dr. Randolph Baron
| March 29, Sat | Partial Solar Eclipse, visible only in extreme northeast US and Canada |
| March 31, Mon | Sunrise 6:34 p.m., Sunset 7:05 p.m. |
| Early April | Sunrise 6:32 a.m., Sunset 7:06 p.m. PD T |
| April 2 Wed | Conjunction of Moon and Jupiter visible around 7:22 p.m. |
| April 5 Sat | Conjunction of Moon and Mars visible around 7:39 p.m. |
| April 12 Sat | Full “Pink” Moon rise at 7:17 p.m. |
| April 21 Mon | Lyrid meteor shower See below |
| April 24 Thurs | Conjunction of Moon and Venus rising at the eastern horizon at 4:14 a.m. |
| April 30 Wed | Conjunction of Moon and Jupiter visible around 7:44 p.m. above western horizon |
| Early May | Sunrise 5:57 a.m., Sunset 7:28 p.m. |
| May 3 Sat | Conjunction of Moon and Mars visible around 8:08 p.m. high above southwestern horizon |
| May 3 Sat | Eta Aquarid meteor shower See below |
| May 12 Mon | Full “Flower” Moon rising 8:04p.m. |
| May 22 Thurs | Conjunction of Moon and Saturn rising at eastern horizon around 2:48 a.m. |
| May 23 Fri | Conjunction of Moon and Venus rising at eastern horizon around 3:28 a.m. |
THE PLANETS IN APRIL AND MAY
Venus will be a morning planet and rises 70 minutes before sunrise in early April.
Mars and Jupiter are early evening planets but are setting closer and closer
to sunset. By late May Jupiter sets only an hour after sunset. Saturn is difficult to
see in both months as it rises just before the sun giving us only a small window to view it.
If you do view Saturn through a small telescope you will note that its rings appear almost
edge on. This is due to the fact that Saturn, like the Earth, is tilted on its axis of rotation.
In fact, Saturn’s tilt is not too dissimilar to the Earth’s. Our tilt is 23.5 degrees, and
Saturn has an axial tilt of around 26.7 degrees, giving the planet seasons. But a year on Saturn
is 29 Earth years so a season on Saturn is over 7 of our years! So when Saturn is near
an equinox we see its rings appearing much thinner. And when Saturn is near a solstice
we see its rings appearing much wider. Over the coming months and years the rings will
again be opening up until a maximum in 7 years.
The Lyrid meteor shower is one of the oldest recorded meteor showers with observations going back to around 687 B.C. The shower is visible over three nights centered around the predicted maximum. This year the predicted maximum is around 6 a.m. on the morning of April 22 so the best time to observe this shower would be late night of April 21 into the morning of April 22.
The Eta Aquarid Meteor shower occurs when the Earth moves through debris left by none other than Haley’s Comet. This shower is predicted to peak on the night of May 3-morning of May 4.
Is Your Home Dark Sky Friendly?
You can reduce light pollution by ensuring that your exterior lighting is neighbor, and dark sky friendly.
Most people will find that a few simple changes can lead to home lighting that is both beautiful and functional,
without contributing to excessive light pollution. The International Dark Sky Association has a Dark Sky
Friendly Home Certification for just that purpose!
Learn more
