Look to the western sky 30 to 90 minutes after sunset on April 19 and the moon tonight will be easy to pick out: a waxing crescent about 11% lit, hanging roughly 20 degrees above the horizon. Venus will sit below it, with the Pleiades nearby in the same evening view.
The moon is two days past the new moon that arrived on April 17, which makes this one of the best times to catch the faint glow of earthshine on its dark side. Venus will set about two hours after the sun, giving observers a short window to see the pair before twilight fades and the planet drops lower in the west.
The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, is an open star cluster made up of more than 1,000 blue-white stellar bodies. It will help anchor the scene for skywatchers scanning the western sky, while Venus will remain the brighter beacon below the moon. Uranus will also be there, sitting 5 degrees to the upper right of Venus with a magnitude of +5.8, but it is almost impossible to spot with the naked eye.
The contrast is the point of the evening. The moon tonight offers a clean, easy target for casual observers, but the deeper celestial lineup depends on timing, a clear western horizon and a quick look after sunset. Those who step outside in the right half hour should catch the crescent, the planet and the star cluster before they sink out of view.
