The early bird catches the spectacular observation of the sky this week, as five planets march through the sky before dawn.
This rare planetary alignment is visible from early June. But the view should be especially impressive this week, like Wednesday it is at its brightest and diminishing moment moon joins the parade of planets.
“This is early in the morning, so you have to set the alarm to do so, but it’s just a fun time to go see planets in the sky,” said Michelle Nichols, director of public observation at Adler Planetarium. of Chicago, and Live Science. .
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How to see the alignment of the five planets
The alignment is visible just before dawn in the northern hemisphere. The best time to look is about 45 minutes before sunrise, local time, Nichols said.
The planets extend from the east-northeast horizon, forming an arc to the south. Coincidentally, they will be lined up in their order from the sun: Wednesday, VenusMars, Jupiter i Saturn. This particular planetary configuration has not occurred since 1864, the sister site Live Science Space.com reported. Saturn is the first of this quintet to rise and will be visible in the southeastern sky just before dawn, in the constellation of Capricorn. Jupiter, in the constellation of Pisces, will be visible as a very bright body next to it; it will look more than twice as bright as Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, according to Space.com.
Mars is one of the easiest planets to distinguish by its reddish coloration; it will be above the eastern horizon. Venus, which looks even brighter than Jupiter, will rise on the horizon to the left of Mars. Mercury will be the last to appear during the 40 minutes or so before sunrise, looking to the horizon to the left of Venus.
On June 27, the crescent moon will provide a useful indicator for Mercury, which will be just below and to the right of the crescent moon. Mercury will also fly near an orange star called Aldebaran, which forms the bull’s eye in the constellation Taurus.
A useful tip for choosing planets is to look for constant light, Nichols said. The stars shine, but the planets do not.
To add to the drama, the moon will be plummeting across this band of planets throughout the week. On Wednesday (June 22nd), the moon will be to the right of Mars. From June 23 to 25, it will set between Mars and Venus, becoming a thinner crescent moon each night. Break your binoculars before dawn on June 27, according to Space.com, and you could catch the last 3% of the moon sitting to the left of a relatively bright Mercury.
What is a planetary alignment?
Actually, the visible planets are not aligned in space, but they are all on one side of space ground. From Earththe lack of perception of depth makes the planets look like they are next to each other.
Mercury rotates the sun every 88 Earth days, Venus every 225 days, Mars every 687 days, Jupiter every 12 years, and Saturn every 29 years, so these alignments occur on an irregular schedule. The last time the five visible planets were aligned was in 2020, preceded by 2016 and 2005.
The alignment will be visible even in the presence of light pollution, but some of the planets, especially Mercury, are low on the horizon, so look for a viewpoint with a clear southern and eastern horizon, such as a shoreline or another. flat point.
Originally published in Live Science