One of many awe-inspiring astronomy experiences we might have is seeing the planets of the Solar System aligned in a tidy line – and this month you could get a chance to witness it with your own eyes.
From the middle of the month, you’ll be able to see Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter all lined up in an almost-perfect planetary alignment in the pre-dawn sky if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere.
The alignment will begin to develop around April 17 but will be most visible on April 20 morning. You’ll need to get up before daybreak on April 20 and gaze east to view the alignment from the United States.
If the viewing circumstances are favorable, you should be able to see all four planets lined in a cosmic row there on the horizon, however, Jupiter’s closeness to the horizon may make it a little more difficult to see.
Saturn, Mars, and Venus have been grouping together since late March, but Jupiter won’t join the party until mid-April, as most astronomers already know. The alignment is scheduled to become even more magnificent a few days later, on about April 23, when the Moon joins the party on the right.
Of course, when heavenly bodies align like this, it can only happen in Earth’s skies. Each planet’s position would be radically different if viewed from a different point in space.
Because the Solar System is practically flat, with each planet orbiting the Sun in the same plane, any apparent alignment is only a matter of perception, depending on where and when you are. Nonetheless, planetary alignments are an incredible sight to behold, and they don’t happen very frequently — at least not with this many planets involved.
This month’s alignment, while unusual in and of itself, is really a taster for an even more spectacular occurrence scheduled for June of this year.
On June 24, all of the other planets in the Solar System – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus – will align in an even grander planetary alignment, though you’ll need binoculars or a telescope to see Neptune and Uranus; the alignment will also stretch out over a larger area of the sky, making it harder to discern or photograph.
Despite these difficulties, significant planetary alignments like this one, which can be seen with the naked eye, are extremely rare and have only happened three times since 2005, so don’t miss it. “We don’t usually get this chance,” Michelle Nichols, an astronomy instructor at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, told Live Science. “Sometimes there are only one or two stars in the sky; most of the time, there are many.”
An extraordinary sight began to unfold in the dark sky visible to the naked eye early Tuesday morning. According to Passant Rabie of Inverse, three planets, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury, coordinated their orbits, generating the optical appearance of appearing side by side.
For three consecutive mornings until Thursday, March 11, the “planetary trio” will be in conjunction with a declining crescent moon, according to Forbes’ Jamie Carter. Mercury is visible due to the alignment, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
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