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Washington Post
Kasha Patel, The Washington Post
The moon rising at 41% exposure begins to rise behind a golden statue as the sun begins to set west of Edmonton on November 10, 2021. Photo by Ed Kaiser / Postmedia Files
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The best planetary party in 18 years has begun. As a 17th century astronomer, you can join it just by looking up.
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Throughout June, sky observers will be able to see the five closest planetary neighbors on Earth followed with their naked eyes, but the best opportunity to see the show will come on June 24th. As an advantage, the Earth’s crescent moon will also position itself between Venus and Mars and act as a substitute for Earth. Observers of the sky can see a spectacular view of the six celestial bodies in order that extend diagonally starting down to the east: Mercury, Venus, the Earth’s moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The distance between Mercury and Saturn will be 107 degrees, according to Sky & Telescope.
“The planets often approach and move away from each other, but this is just a particularly fun order. It’s just a coincidence,” said Michelle Thaller, a NASA astronomer. “It’s kind of like a lot of fun for the solar system that you can do for free.”
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When celestial bodies appear close to Earth, astronomers call the spectacle a conjunction. The conjunctions of a few planets are quite common and occur approximately every few years, but the five planets align only once every two decades. The last time the five planets were aligned was in December 2004, and the next alignment will not occur until 2040. Due to the different orbits and inclinations, the eight planets will never be perfectly aligned.
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How to look
While a telescope or binoculars can help observe the sky, the planets will shine brighter than the surrounding stars and should be easy to spot with the naked eye. Just get out about 30 minutes before sunrise and wait for a clear horizon. The darker skies are better, but the planets will stand out even over the city lights.
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“Even in the city, these are bright enough: you should be able to see them. Go up to a friend’s balcony or on the roof. As long as you can get a clear horizon and a clear sky, you can see it,” he said. dir Thaller.
Mercury is the hardest to see because of its proximity to the sun. The small faint planet is usually lost with the glow of sunrise or sunset, but the planet will travel progressively farther from the sun as the month progresses. On June 24, Mercury should be much easier to spot and will rise an hour before sunrise. Thaller, who has only seen Mercury half a dozen times in his life, experienced his best performance near Dulles International Airport.
Thaller said the rare planetary alignment poses no danger to the people of Earth, but the gravitational pull of all the planets on one side can be seen slightly through the tides on Earth. Due to its distance, Venus exerts the largest tidal force on Earth, although it is only a small fraction compared to our Moon. Thaller said spacecraft can also feel extremely small forces, on the scale of the fractions of an atom, as the gravity of the planets pulls them.
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Sightings of planetary conjunctions have been made for centuries and date back to the ancient Greeks who observed the movements of these five planets with the naked eye. (Uranus, Neptune, and the dwarf planet Pluto were not discovered until after the telescope was invented in the 17th century.) People thought at the time that they might be gods or spirits. The word “planet” comes from the Greek word “planets”, which means “wandering”.
“People realized they were different … most stars stayed in their positions relative to other stars, but those planets seem to roam the sky,” Thaller said. “Sometimes they all passed lined up in a part of the sky.”
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