The Brightest Planets in April's Night Sky: How and When to See Them

April 8 – Mercury emerges from beyond the sun and into the evening sky this month. In a telescope, Mercury appears as a gibbous disk and is shining at a brilliant minus 1.0 magnitude (making it nearly as bright as Sirius, the brightest star in the sky). Mercury just passed the perihelion point of its orbit, when it's closest to the sun, on April 5 and is thus moving rapidly, becoming more favorably placed with each passing day.