Will We See a ‘Smiley Face’ in the Sky in Kentucky?

I missed the most recent lunar eclipse, but I think we had cloudy skies. Over the past 30 days, that wasn't uncommon. I did see the big solar eclipse in 2024, but that was hard to miss. "Keep the astronomical phenomena in the daytime hours," I say. A fat lot of good it will do, but I'm guaranteed not to miss it.

The Smiley Face in the Sky

Yes, I know. You can't have a lunar eclipse when the sun's out (duh), but it would make it a whole lot easier. Well, now that the silliness is behind, let's move toward what's going to happen in the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning. (See what I mean? PRE-DAWN.)

I'm sure you've been seeing quite a bit about the "smiley face" that is expected to appear about one hour before the sun rises on Friday morning. If you want to see it, just find out when the sun will rise in your city. It's easy to find. I'm in Owensboro, so I need to get my butt out of bed about 5 AM or a little before if I want to catch the rare occurrence of Venus and Saturn appearing in the night sky along with a crescent moon.

Who Will See the Smiley Face in the Sky?

Even if it's a clear sky, it might not be the perfect image of a smiley face, since one planet could appear larger than the other. But I guess you can pretend that it has a "black eye" and it's swollen. The disclaimers about this event are important because some are calling it a hoax. Earthsky.org addresses those beliefs by informing us that it's not 100% true that we'll see a "smiley face" but that the claim that that's what it will look like has merit.

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Why the Smiley Face Might Not Look Like a Smiley Face to Some

It's because the crescent moon will appear to be very thin. Coupled with the possibility that one planet might appear larger to us than the other, it might not look like a traditional "smiley face" to some.

Here's something from NASA detailing April's astronomical events. At the one-minute mark they'll get to the "smiley face."

So will Kentucky see this astronomical phenomenon? Well, according to the BBC's Sky at Night Magazine, if you're in the Northern Hemisphere and the sky is clear, you'll be able to see it. Unless something highly dramatic happened while I was asleep, Kentucky is still in North America.

See you in the morning.