Smiley Face in the Sky - Planet Alignment Event

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Posted 2020-04-27 by Paula McManus ⇒ follow

Fri 15 May 2020 - Sat 16 May 2020

Set your alarm for this upcoming rare astronomical event. Jupiter, Venus and the Moon will align to form a great big smiley face in the sky! :) It's sure to put a smile on your face.

We're usually spoilt for choice with super moons and meteor showers and our sky-gazing fun will continue with this very exciting planet alignment event.

On May 15th and 16th, the 3 brightest celestial objects in the sky will align and you'll see a very cute smiley face.

The planets will only be visible in the evening sky for a very short time just after the sun sets. You'll have to be make sure you're not late for this one! If you miss it, you'll have to wait until 2036 for the next smiley face.

Venus regularly aligns with the moon once a month, but in this rare event Jupiter joins in and the 2 planets become 'eyes' and the moon underneath is a big smiley mouth.

The last time this happened was 12 years ago in 2008. I was outside my house, glanced up at the moon and was stunned by what I saw. I snapped off a couple of really terrible photos and still remember how excited I was to have seen a smiley face in the sky.

The world needs reasons to smile at the moment. Let's hope for clear skies so that we can enjoy outer space's happy face.