Rare Cosmic ‘Smile’ To Appear Over Minnesota, Wisconsin — How to See It

By now, you might have heard that the night sky will feature a smiley face this week. The rare phenomenon involving the moon and a couple of other celestial bodies has been getting promoted across social media in recent weeks, leading up to its late-April appearance.

For people in Minnesota and Wisconsin looking to see this unique phenomenon, you might have questions about when it will happen, where to look, how long it will last, or even if the weather will cooperate.

Here's what you need to know if you're looking to see this rare night sky phenomenon in the sky over Wisconsin or Minnesota.

What is this cosmic smiley face? Why is it happening?

As Popular Science explains, this rare smiley face will be made up of the moon and two planets in our solar system.

The "mouth" of the smiley face is the crescent moon, appearing like a smiling mouth in the sky.

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Completing the visual are the planets Venus and Saturn, which will make up the "eyes" position above the moon.

Before the smiley face, there will be a frowny face in the sky

I guess you could say the sky will be happier on Friday than it will be on Thursday.

Thursday morning, we'll actually get a "sad face" in the morning sky. The face will be tilted 90 degrees to the left from the horizon, with Venus appearing to be the higher "right eye" and Saturn being the lower "left eye".

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Depending on where you are in Minnesota or Wisconsin, it should come up on the eastern horizon (almost due east) shortly after 5 am on Thursday, April 24. It will remain visible but slowly fading as it rises in the sky before the sun comes up about an hour later.

When will this smile appear? Where in the sky should I look?

If you're looking for the happier face, Friday is your day.

For us here in Wisconsin and Minnesota, the smiley face will appear just after 5 am on Friday. April 25. Similar to Thursday's sad face, it will rise in the eastern sky (nearly due east) and slowly fade as the sky gets brighter when the sun comes up around 6 am.

The eyes won't be perfectly even on the "face", with Venus being the higher of the two "eyes" on the left side, above the mouth.

For us in Minnesota and Wisconsin, the smile will also be kind of "tilted", appearing to be leaning to the right, rather than straight up-and-down.

Will the weather cooperate?

Key to this whole thing is whether or not there will be clouds to obstruct our view of the sky.

Unfortunately, there will be at least some clouds to contend with across both Minnesota and Wisconsin both mornings. Generally speaking, Thursday looks to be the less cloudy of the two days.

Some places in both states will have fewer clouds than other places, so monitor things for your locale if you want to check out this phenomenon. That said, it doesn't look like we will see any widespread clear sky conditions either morning.