Planet Scenes April 2022
|
|
April 30 We finally arrived at the best planetary conjunction of 2022 as Venus passes below Jupiter in the morning sky. As seen from the east coast of North America, Venus is about half a degree right of Jupiter this morning and about half a degree lower left of it tomorrow morning. Saturn and Mars can still be seen to their upper right, in Capricornus and Aquarius, respectively. |
|
|
|
April 28 On Thursday morning, April 28, the four planets are still arrayed across a relatively small portion of the ecliptic, but are now noticeably uneven in their spacing. Saturn is rapidly being left behind, Venus and Jupiter are about to meet in a close conjunction, and Mars is in between, hurrying toward its own conjunction with Jupiter in a month's time. Neptune gets in on the action as well; its position can be seen by going to the page from the second thumbnail. |
|
|
April 27 Mercury has been prominent in the evening sky for most of April and now on this evening is close to its greatest elongation from the Sun, while also beautifully situated just below the Pleiades. |
||
|
April 23 Now exactly a week away from the Venus/Jupiter conjunction, we have a nice view of the planet lineup on this Saturday morning. A last quarter Moon brightened the sky into a deep blue even before twilight, but we can still see the stars of the celestial water-world behind the planets (from left to right, Pisces, Aquarius, and Capricornus). Although Venus is racing eastward against the stars to overtake Jupiter, when compared to the horizon, it will appear that Jupiter is rising up to meet Venus, so the conjunction will occur in almost the same elevation above the horizon as Venus has on this morning. |
||
|
April 19 Tuesday, April 19 was clear and cold, so we got a nice view of the planet line-up from the north side of the Rappahannock River valley. The distances between the planets are still fairly close this morning, so long as we don't count Neptune LOL (its position is just to the right of Jupiter). The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter is only 11 days away, during which Venus will be almost as high as it is now and Jupiter will have appeared to rise up to meet her. |
||
|
|
April 10 This Sunday morning, a week before Easter, the planets are beginning to separate as Venus pulls further ahead of Mars, which is likewise pulling away from Saturn. Jupiter has not yet joined the scene, at least from the perspective of my horizon view about 70 minutes prior to sunrise. |
|
|
April 8 On Friday, April 8, the distance between Mars and Saturn has increased to almost 2° 17' and Venus has pulled away to separate from Mars by over 8° this morning. Note how far Venus has advanced into Aquarius compared to the April 4 view; its conjunction with Jupiter is three weeks away. Fog from the river adds to the scene this morning. |
||
|
|
April 4 Here we see the morning scene a bit earlier than in my other images, because in the first image the time is still 90 minutes prior to sunrise. Mars and Saturn are about 1/2° apart this morning and Venus has moved into Aquarius. |
|
|
|
April 2 Saturday morning, April 2, dawned clear and Moonless so it was a good morning to catch the new planet scene, which has now changed radically compared to the last morning we had clear skies. Now, Venus has moved on past both Mars and Saturn and almost makes a straight line with the other two. Mars has almost caught Saturn, rapidly approaching their April 5 conjunction. Jupiter is still far too low in the twilight to include in these images, which were obtained more than an hour before sunrise. |
|