The April skies are less brilliant than those of winter, though Orion is now setting over to the west and the other winter constellations are still visible. Unmistakable Leo, the Lion, is the signpost constellation in mid sky looking south, with its bright star Regulus. There could also be planets visible as well, as the ecliptic runs from bottom left to top right in this map. Following Leo is Virgo, the Virgin, with its brightest star being Spica. These stars stand out at this time of year, as the rest of their constellations are comparatively faint, though still visible even from city skies.
But one constellation that requires country skies to see it is Hydra, the Water Snake, which wriggles along the southern horizon. But although most of its stars are faint, one stands out – Alphard, a star whose name means ‘The Solitary One’ in Arabic. You can see why – there are no other significant stars near it. However, there’s another part of Hydra which is quite easy to spot, which is its head, to the east of Procyon and below the faint stars of Cancer. Hydra is the largest constellation of all, though one of the lesser known, so make yourself acquainted with these two bits of it even if you can’t see the rest of its stars.
There’s a reason why there are fewer bright stars at this time of year than in winter or summer, and that’s because we are now looking at right angles to the plane of the Milky Way. You can still see it given very good skies, fairly low down in the north and east, but it is the part which is in the opposite direction to the centre of the galaxy and is fairly dim. The youngest and brightest stars lie along the plane of the Milky Way.