The full moon will meet the blue giant star Spica on 12 April, making for a pleasing pairing in the evening sky. Although officially the moon only becomes full in the early hours of the following day, it will be indistinguishable from full to the naked eye, with more than 99% of its visible surface illuminated.
The chart shows the view looking south-east from London at 2200 BST on 12 April 2025. Spica is the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo, the virgin, and the 16th brightest star in the whole night sky with a mass fully 11.43 times larger than the sun’s and a radius of almost 7.5 times that of our star. As befits such a giant, it emits roughly 20,500 times more light as the sun.
While the light reflecting off the moon’s surface takes just 1.3 seconds to reach Earth, the light emitted from Spica has been travelling through space for about 250 years. There will be a subtle colour difference between the two: the moon’s light has a silvery hue while Spica’s is tinged with blue.
From the southern hemisphere, the pairing will be easily visible, this time in the north-eastern sky.
