This should be a pretty incredible sight!
From Daily Mail:
“Stargazers are in for a treat later this month as five planets of the solar system will be visible from Earth as part of a rare planetary alignment. On March 28, Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars and Venus are expected to line up together in a small section of the sky shortly after sunset.
Two of the brighter planets – Mercury and Jupiter – will be noticeable near the horizon, while Venus is expected to shine higher in the sky. Although binoculars will be needed to spot Uranus, Mars should be viewable in the alignment near to the first quarter of the moon.
While it is not unusual to see two or three planets in the sky, an alignment of five is less common. It happened last year, and in both 2020 and 2016 prior to that.
To easily identify the planets this month, the educational astronomy application Star Walk recommends using the app Sky Tonight, which can be pointed at the night sky to give a live display of what is going on.
The planets are expected to be aligned in a 50-degree sky sector, which means that they will appear closer together from Earth in a small area above.
Beth Biller, of the University of Edinburgh, told MailOnline that some planets would be much easier to see than others. She said: ‘Venus and Jupiter are both very bright and easy to pick out and you may have already seen them close together over the past few weeks. (We saw them both, it was pretty ccool.)
‘Mars is a bit fainter, but still easily observed with the naked eye. Mercury starts getting tricky – you need to be at a dark site with a clear view of the horizon if you want to see Mercury. ‘Uranus is the faintest and hardest to see – you’ll need binoculars or a telescope to see Uranus.’
Senior contributing editor at Sky & Telescope, Rick Fienberg, also stressed that seeing all five planets at the same time on March 28 may be difficult and will depend on a person’s location.
‘Unless you have a clear sky and a nearly flat western horizon free of obstructions such as trees or buildings, you won’t see Jupiter and Mercury,’ he said of those in the US while speaking to FOX 35.
While specialist equipment may be needed to spot Uranus, Mr Fienberg claimed that the five planets should be viewable with binoculars.”
Read the whole story here.
If you are interested, visit Astronomy for all things related to the stars and planets.
DCG
I know when we have a full moon crazy things happen wonder if this would be the same way? Naw then biteme would blame that on trump too lol. But sure is strange that many at once.
I hope my area will have clear weather that night. I live in the mountains of NC and we get a lot of fog.
A mite off-topic, but you know cats…
Tonight is the night! My western sky is fairly clear (light clouds nearing sunset) & I hope will clear even further as the night nears. What I’ve read is that I should be able to see this in the West….but I’m betting in my time zone that it will be in the Southwest when the quarter moon appears in my time zone. If they remain visible after dark, it will be in the West. I have a telescope ready. One of the thrills of my life (besides the birth of my kids :). ) was to use my telescope to see Saturn up close a few years ago when it was closest to Earth….with the rings and colors, etc….ordinary humans could DO THIS so routinely, when, in our history as humans, almost no one could in by-gone days. Gives me chills to think of this. Just like, I teach my middle school art students one and two-point perspective….and tell them that NO ONE of ANY age, let alone 11-13, could do this until the Renaissance (1500s), and even then—-it was geniuses like Di Vinci that figured it out. He wasn’t in middle school 🙂
Just shortly after sunset here in OK and we’ve spotted Venus and Mars so far. No telescope here so relying on our naked eyes. It’s cool!
Pacific Coast Time…..just came in from outside at 20:15, have been outside for half an hour. Could see with naked eye ALL OF THEM in a line, like I could draw a line through them with a ruler…. the middle of the line just above Orion’s Belt, and, all bright enough, despite a quarter moon. The least, and last, being Uranus…but I could see it faintly without even the telescope (with my glasses on :)). I dragged my husband out to witness it and he is grateful, too. This was wonderful DCG…Thank you so much!!!! I don’t know when we’ll see it again, and I was afraid at sunset tonight with stratus clouds that I wouldn’t get to see it this time….but the sky became pristine and clear just after sunset. Lucky me!!!!