Good morning friends and fellow stargazers!
Well, early this morning -- well before my usual wake up time -- I went into town to the highest point with a clearest view of the eastern sky to capture a couple of really beautiful shots of four planets: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, in a parade across the predawn sky, along with the crescent moon.
As you can see, the planets are all, more or less, in a straight line across the early morning sky with Luna passing beneath them. Tomorrow (April 27th), the moon will be a thin crescent beneath Jupiter and Venus.
Spotting the planetary parade is easy with Venus being
the brightest object in the early morning sky once the moon passes below
the horizon towards its New Moon (or No Moon) Phase. From there you can easily find the other three fainter Wandering Stars in the line of the Ecliptic.
Jupiter and Venus themselves are moving closer towards a glorious close conjunction in the morning sky on Saturday, April 30th and Sunday, May 1st, when the two planets will be less than the moon's distance from each other (or about 0.2 degrees apart) with Venus passing just under Jupiter from our view here on Earth.
Now then y'all might be asking where is Mercury in all this? Well, the answer to that question is the planet closest to the Sun is better seen in the evening sky closer to the west and sunset. Right now Mercury is close to a conjunction of its own with the Pleiades Star Cluster on Saturday, April 30th.
Hopefully, with God and clear skies willing, I'll be able to capture both the close conjunctions of Venus and Jupiter, as well as Mercury's "meeting" with the Seven Sisters this weekend.
Until then keep your eyes to the skies, y'all!
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