From the Northern Hemisphere, Saturn, Mars, Venus and Jupiter will all be in near-perfect planetary alignment in the sky before sunrise from the middle of the month.
The alignment will start building around April 17, but it will be most visible in the morning of April 20. To see the alignment from the United States, get up before sunrise on April 20 and face east.
On the horizon, provided viewing conditions are favorable, you should be able to see all four planets lined up in a row in the sky, although Jupiter’s proximity to the horizon can make it a bit more difficult to see.
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Saturn, Mars and Venus have actually clustered together since late March, but Jupiter won’t join the party until mid-April. The alignment will get even more spectacular a few days later — around April 23 — with the moon lining up to join the party on the right.
Planetary Conjunction Tonight | Planetary Alignment 2022 | Planet alignment | Venus and Mars | Starwalk
— Yvonne Oflaz (@YOflaz) Apr 8, 2022
Of course, when celestial bodies align in this way, it only happens in Earth’s sky. The position of each planet would be completely different if viewed from a different location in space. Since the solar system is basically flat, with every planet orbiting the sun in the same plane, any apparent alignment is simply a matter of perspective, depending on where and when you are.
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On June 24, all the other planets in the solar system — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus — will converge in an even larger planetary alignment, although you’ll probably need binoculars or a telescope to see Neptune and Uranus; the alignment also extends over a wider area of the sky, making it more difficult to detect or take pictures.
Despite these obstacles, large planetary alignments like this, visible to the human eye, are quite uncommon and have only happened three times since 2005, so don’t miss out.