The Skies in April Will See a Dance of 4 Morning Planets | They Are the Brightest in the Sky

Astrologically, April seems to be a busy time for the skies. As the pre-dawn sky in the first week of April 2022 will be graced by the assembly of four planets, all visible before sunrise in the east-southeast sky of the United States, according to Space.com. 

Stargazers will get to take in the beauty of Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn, four out of the five brightest solar system planets, lined up across the east-southeast sky, with just the naked eye or at most, with a set of binoculars. 

The month will start off with Venus, Mars, and Saturn clustered low in our east-southeast sky just before sunrise, within six degrees of separation, but each morning thereafter, the configuration noticeably changes. Mars and Saturn approach each other more closely than the apparent diameter of the moon on April 5. 

Then, from April 8, Jupiter, even though it will still be buried deep in the dawn as the month begins, will start to make its presence felt, but far below and to the left of the other three planets. By the morning of April 19, all four planets will be stretched out in a diagonal line spanning just over 30 degrees; from lower left to upper right: Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn.

While this in itself seems like a magical event, it only gets interesting towards the end of the final week of April, "with the approach of magnitude -2 Jupiter to magnitude -4 Venus, seven times brighter. Meanwhile, the crescent moon looms, passing below Saturn on April 25, Mars on April 26, and finally Jupiter and Venus on April 27," cites Space.com.

To take it all in, all you need to do is make sure you have a wide-open view of the east-southeast horizon that morning with no obstructions and set your alarm clock for 5:15 a.m. 

According to SciTechDaily, Venus’s orbit is closer to the Sun than the Earth’s, and Jupiter’s orbit is much farther away, so the proximity is an illusion, occurring only because Earth, Venus, and Jupiter happen to be approximately aligned. This celestial event will continue on the morning of May 1, but the positions of the planets, Jupiter and Venus, will be reversed.

This video below can help explain everything better for those interested. 

References:

https://www.space.com/april-2022-morning-planets-jupiter-saturn-venus-mars

https://scitechdaily.com/dont-miss-mars-saturn-and-jupiter-venus-conjunctions-happening-this-month/

Cover Image Source: Twitter | Space.com