The spring night sky is putting on a show
April 29, 2026
Posted by Lake Erie Nature and Science Center
While the temperatures are finally starting to creep above freezing, something remarkable is happening overhead. All you need to catch it is a willingness to step outside and look up. Spring is arguably the most underrated season for stargazing in our area, and this year is no exception. From dramatic galaxies to a legendary meteor shower, the night sky from late March through mid-May has enough going on to turn even the most devoted couch-dweller into an amateur astronomer.
The Lion Takes Center Stage
The constellation Leo the Lion dominates our southern sky, sitting high and proud like … well, like a lion … and serves as a kind of cosmic landmark that points the way to some jaw-dropping sites. The easiest way to find the constellation Leo is to look for a backwards question mark of stars called “the Sickle.” That arc forms the lion’s mane and head, with the bright star Regulus anchoring the bottom. Because of its brightness, Regulus is great for star alignment. Leo also includes a relatively easy-to-see galaxy trio called the Leo Triplet.
Arc to Arcturus – Follow Leo Into Virgo
The constellation Virgo stretches across a large swath of the southern sky this time of year, and she’s sitting on top of one of the most mind-boggling regions in all of astronomy: the Virgo Cluster. The Virgo Cluster is a massive collection of over a thousand galaxies gravitationally bound together, roughly 65 million light-years away.
Trace an arc from the Big Dipper’s handle (currently rising in the northeast) and you’ll “arc to Arcturus”, which is a brilliant orange star in the constellation Boötes, and then “speed on to Spica,” the brightest star in Virgo.
You won’t see the whole cluster with the naked eye, but with binoculars on a clear, dark night you can begin to pick out faint smudges of light that are entire galaxies. Each one contains billions of stars!
And Venus Was Her Name
One thing you can see with the naked eye this Spring is Venus. The reason Venus is naked-eye visible? It’s the third brightest object in the sky! Often referred to as Earth’s twin, it’s also our closest planetary neighbor and the hottest planet in our solar system. Look low in the west just after sunset to catch a glimpse of Venus.
There’s Artemis II … too
Hopefully by the time of this printing, we’re also celebrating the successful launch of Artemis II. Around April 1st, four astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II spacecraft are scheduled to leave Earth and loop around the Moon, making it the first crewed deep-space mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. (Ya know, “one small step for Man …”?) During this historic mission, Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Canadian Astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will spend ten days traveling farther from Earth than any human crew in over fifty years. If the clouds cooperate, you might even catch Artemis II as a moving point of light crossing the sky. Get the inside scoop on this historic mission and learn what’s coming in NASA’s next giant leap at Skywatch Live: All About Artemis here at Lake Erie Nature & Science Center on Friday, May 29 at 7:00 p.m.
Skywatch Live
Want to learn even more about space from the controlled and comfortable environment of a state-of-the-art planetarium? Of course you do! Visit www.lensc.org/planetarium to plan your visit to Lake Erie Nature & Science Center.
