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Space
Venus is 70 times larger than Mercury, so it will be much lighter than its sister planet Earth, and all the planets will appear in the night sky as tiny points of light for stargazers in the northern hemisphere, with Mercury being the hardest planet to see without magnification, as it is found partly bright from the sky, but can be seen near the much brighter planet Venus, While tonight they appear only 1.5 degrees apart and reach conjunction – their closest point – on December 29 at 21:00 GMT, and the two will not be that close again until 2024, as they can be spotted at the lower west, and you’ll get the best view about half an hour after sunset, with Venus disappearing about 40 minutes later.
While the rest of the planets line up due east, Jupiter appears brighter than all the stars and high in the southern sky, and while the largest planet in our solar system disappears just before midnight, Mars remains visible all night after rising at east just before sunset, it will appear red and brighter than most stars, while its neighbor Saturn will be gold in color when it appears in the southwest after sunset.
The moon will also join the planet formation, appearing in the form of a waxing crescent between Jupiter and Saturn tonight, and Gianluca Massi, astronomer with the Virtual Telescope Project, told Newsweek: ‘On these nights, we can see all the planets in our solar system at a glance, well after sunset.” It’s short, and it happens from time to time, but it’s always an incredible sight.”
The five worlds will shine in succession as they all travel at the level of the solar system, known as the ecliptic, but they won’t be as close together as it seems, because each planet is millions of miles away from the others.
The ‘parade of planets’ was last seen from the UK in June, when it was also joined by a crescent moon, and the five naked-eye planets appeared in order of their distance from the Sun – a formation that does not it had been seen for 18 years, and will continue to be seen through the end of this month, just the year Mercury vanishes.
The Virtual Telescope Project will broadcast a live YouTube view of the planet above the horizon in Rome, Italy tonight at 16:00 GMT.
