Space activity has picked up this month, with two meteor showers and the historic Artemis II mission, which sent humans back to the moon and splashed down on Earth on Friday.
Stargazers looking for more to do in April have a few more things coming, including a planet parade where four planets — Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune — are set to be in the sky at the same time.
The small parade starts around Thursday, April 16, and lasts until nearly the end of the month. All four planets will be relatively close to one another on the eastern horizon just before sunrise each day. To view the parade, you’ll need to stay up almost all night or wake up very early. And it’s best to grab a telescope.
The four planets will be visible just before sunrise on the eastern horizon.
The optimal time to view it depends on where you are. If you’re at a higher elevation, try just before 6 a.m. local time. If you’re at sea level, wait for the planets to come up above the horizon just after 6 a.m. local time. The planets will be swiftly chased by the sun, giving viewers a narrow window to view all four planets before sunrise.
Since sunrise varies based on location, you may have as long as 40 minutes or as little as 20 minutes to see all four planets. You’ll want to check the local sunrise times to see if you have enough time to spot all four before the sun comes up.
Neptune won’t be visible to the naked eye, but it’ll be close to the other three planets.
The proximity to the sun and the narrow window make April’s planet parade one of the more difficult ones to see, according to Geza Gyuk, senior director of astronomy at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium.
“Mercury is, as always, close to the sun and hard to see,” Gyuk told me. “Since Mars and Saturn will be close to Mercury, they will also be hard to see without a very low eastern horizon.”
The best days to try to see the planet parade are between Saturday, April 18 and Friday, April 24. Before those dates, Saturn is a bit close to the sun and rises late over the horizon, and after them, Mercury starts to drift precariously close to the sun.
Get out (or borrow) a telescope
Skygazers need a telescope at a minimum to see all four planets, since Neptune is not visible to the naked eye.
Even using a telescope, Gyuk says it takes some skill to pick out Neptune in the night sky. He recommends taking a pair of binoculars as well, since it’ll make the other three planets easier to see. But he warns skygazers to be careful not to look directly at the sun while using them.
The usual stargazing rules apply: You’ll have better luck away from light pollution, so leave the city and suburbs to get the best view.
The chance to see four planets in the sky at the same time, and so close together, isn’t terribly common. Gyuk says that astronomers tend not to refer to these events as planet parades — instead calling them “planetary alignments” — but also rarely pass up the opportunity to view planets in unique configurations like this.
“I always try to catch a glimpse at least whenever this sort of planetary alignment occurs,” Gyuk said. “It is a thrill to me.”
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