Introduction Of Sky
Heads up, sky fans in the UAE! You might have seen some buzz online about a rare smiley face popping up in the sky on April 25th, supposedly thanks to Venus, Saturn, and the moon lining up. Sounds cool, right?
Table of Contents
Well, local space experts are chiming in to set the record straight. While it’s true that these three celestial buddies – Venus, Saturn, and our crescent moon – are hanging out together in the eastern sky around April 24th and 25th, the view from here in the UAE (and across the Middle East) will be a bit different than that happy-face picture you might have seen.
According to Ibrahim Ghounaimat from the International Astronomical Centre, we’ll see them more in a straight line before sunrise on April 25th. Khadija Al Hariri from the Dubai Astronomy Group agrees, pointing out that the widely shared images showing a distinct smiley face are more likely to be seen from specific spots like parts of West Africa, North America, and South America.
Looking at photos from the Dubai Astronomy Group taken on April 24th, 25th, and 26th, you can see Venus shining bright up high, Saturn hanging out to the side, and a slender crescent moon closer to the horizon. There’s definitely no curve there making a smile for us here in the UAE.
So, while we might miss out on the smiley face, it’s still pretty neat that Venus, Saturn, and the moon are putting on a show together in the early morning sky! Plus, remember we just got to enjoy the Lyrid meteor shower and a beautiful pink moon earlier this month – the cosmos is always giving us something amazing to look at!
