Tomorrow morning we can enjoy a rare astronomical phenomenon. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye in the sky. And that in the order that they revolve around the sun. This rare alignment of the planets has been visible since early June, but the view is best tonight. For example, Mercury is at its brightest and the Moon joins the parade of the planets. If you take out the telescope, you can also see Neptune and Uranus.
You will have to get up early for this parade of planets, because the sun will throw a spanner in the works. So it is best to look up an hour before sunrise, which is at 5:24 am. The planets are scattered in the sky from northeast to southeast. The moon is nicely positioned between Venus and Mars in the place of Earth. Mercury will be the hardest to spot as the minor planet is only just above the horizon.
Although not an official scientific term, the term ‘planet parade’ is often used when planets in the same area in the sky converge. Although they appear to be side by side, the planets are not in a row in space. They all happen to be on the same side of the sun, making it look like they’re next to each other on Earth.
When this is the case for 5 planets, we speak of a ‘large’ planetary parade. The last time they were in the sky this way was in 2004. After that, it’ll be until 2040, so it’s worth catching a glimpse if you can. The reason this alignment has such an irregular schedule is because Mercury orbits the sun in 88 days, Venus in 225 days, Mars in 687 days, Jupiter in 12 years, and Saturn in 29 years.
According to the RMI, it will remain mainly dry and partly cloudy.
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