One of my mentors in astronomy was Dr. Kenneth L. Franklin, who was the Chairman and chief scientist at New York's Hayden Planetarium.
It would fit the day-to-day changes among the planets in our early morning sky if Ken had described it in such a way. There are four out of the five bright solar system planets lined up across the east-southeastern sky in April.
If you want to see April's planets in the predawn hours, check out guides for the best telescopes and best binoculars to find the right instrument for you. If you want to take photos of the planets, we have guides for the best cameras andlenses.
There are three bright planets in the sky just before sunrise. The planets are within six degrees of each other. On April 5, the moon's apparent diameter is less than that of Mars and Saturn.
Jupiter, buried deep in the dawn as the month begins, makes its presence felt, even though it is far below and to the left of the other planets. By the morning of April 19 all four planets will be visible from the lower left to the upper right.
During the last week of April, there is an approach of magnitude -2 Jupiter to magnitude -4 Venus, seven times brighter. The crescent moon will pass below the planets on April 25, Mars on April 26 and Jupiter and Venus on April 27. Make sure you have a wide-open view of the east-southeast horizon that morning and set your alarm clock for 5 am.
You can see the moon, Jupiter and Venus in a single glance. On April 28, Venus and Jupiter are separated by 2 degrees, and on April 29 they are separated by 1.3 degrees.
On April 30, Venus and Jupiter are visible together in a telescope in a low-to-medium power view. Three of Jupiter's four satellites will be visible and Venus will look a bit more than half-lit.
When Venus passes 0.25 degrees north of Jupiter, the Far East sees them near their moments of conjunction and appulse. This is the closest Venus-Jupiter conjunction since August 2016 when they were deeper in the glow of the sun. On March 1, 2023, there will be a pair of planets in the evening sky.
The denouement after April 30 is swift. On May 1, the two planets are still strikingly close, separated by 0.6 degrees and this will increase by almost a degree per day, so that by May 8, Jupiter shines 7.1 degrees to Venus.
In the months to come, these two planets will be very different. Venus will slowly sink into the sunrise in August as she hugs the edge of dawn low in the east. Jupiter will be on the other side of the sky in the evening.
The moon and naked-eye planets follow a line in the sky called the ecliptic. The sun appears to take a path through the sky as a result of the Earth's revolution around it.
The ecliptic is a representation of the extension or projection of the plane of the Earth. When visible in the sky, the moon and planets stay close to the ecliptic line since their planes do not differ much from that of the Earth.
Millions of horoscope users are familiar with the names of the 12 constellations that form the zodiac, but they are hard to find in the actual sky.
The planets were like bright stars and had the freedom to wander in the heavens, while the fixed stars remained in their positions. The ability to move seemed to have a God-like quality. There is evidence that the planets came to be associated with the gods.
If the movements of the planets had any significance at all, the skywatchers would have had to inform those who could read the signs. There are people who believe that the changing positions of the sun, moon and planets can affect the fate of individuals and nations.
The problem with this theory is that the planets in the night sky are always shifting. We can forget the last time we saw them assemble.
None of the influential magical thinking attributed to the previous event ever materialized.
The instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium is Joe Rao. He writes about astronomy for a number of publications. Follow us on social media.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
