A rare parade of planets is coming into better view in the second half of
June, and even the moon will join the show.
The current early-evening sky is completely devoid of any of the five bright
planets you can see with the naked eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and
Saturn). You have to wait until the second half of the night to see any of
them, and then they will slowly come into view, one by one, and just before
sunrise, all five will be stretched out across the southern and eastern
sky.
Certainly, it is not unusual to see two or three bright planets in a single
glance, but to have five in view simultaneously is something quite special.
This week's alignment will be quite "tight," with the five worlds appearing
to stretch across an arc only about halfway across the sky from
east-northeast to almost due south roughly about a half hour before
sunrise.
But even more interesting is that these five planets will appear in the same
sequence in the sky as they are in their respective orbits around the sun.
In this particular case, scanning from the east-northeast horizon and
continuing upward and toward the right, will be Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn. Add the moon, which can serve to mark Earth's position
in this lineup from June 23 to 25, and we have an exceptionally rare
configuration.
Incredibly, the last time this kind of alignment happened was March 5, 1864!
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The lineup
Here's how the lineup will appear, starting with the "lead" planet, Saturn,
which will make its appearance around the middle of the night and then
continue into the predawn hours with Jupiter and then Mars. Dazzling Venus
makes its appearance at the break of dawn, followed about 30 or 40 minutes
before sunup by the innermost planet, Mercury.
Saturn is primed for autumn evenings in 2022, but it's now rising before
midnight local daylight time. To the naked eye, Saturn looks like a bright,
yellow-white "star" shining with a sedate glow in the relatively dim
zodiacal constellation Capricornus. The planet's famous rings can be
glimpsed with a small telescope magnifying at least 30 power. At the first
light of dawn, Saturn is well placed for viewing in the southeast or
south-southeast sky.
Jupiter is an early-morning object. It's in western Pisces, rising around
1:30 a.m. local daylight time. It glows at a brilliant magnitude -2.4 — more
than 2.5 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in Earth's sky. The
big planet comes to western quadrature (90 degrees west of the sun) on June
29. When looking through a telescope, you may notice that the planet's
western limb is slightly less illuminated than its eastern limb this
month.
Mars is finally beginning to call attention to itself as it approaches Earth
and continues to brighten. It rises in the east shortly before 2 a.m. local
daylight time and now shines at magnitude 0.5 — a match for Achernar, the
ninth-brightest star in Earth's sky. You'll recognize Mars by its
distinctive orange-yellow hue.
Venus rises around the time of dawn's first glow, near 3:30 a.m. local
daylight time. At magnitude -3.9, Venus outshines its nearest competitor in
brilliance, Jupiter, some fourfold. Binoculars will help to show the
Pleiades star cluster 9 degrees to the left of Venus before morning twilight
gets too bright.
Mercury is a latecomer to the morning planet scene. Back on May 21, it was
at inferior conjunction and still far too dim to be seen low in the dawn sky
when June began. But on June 16, Mercury was at its greatest elongation, 23
degrees west of the sun, at magnitude 0.6, now making it marginally visible
to the unaided eye very low in the east-northeast about 30 to 40 minutes
before sunrise. Look for it about 10 degrees to Venus' lower left. (Your
clenched fist held at arm's length is roughly equal to 10 degrees.) Through
the end of June, Mercury remains about the same altitude in bright twilight
as it continues to brighten.
The moon joins in, too!
Adding to this remarkable planet array is Earth's moon, which will pass
through the general vicinity of all five planets in the coming days, making
identifying a particular planet on a given morning much easier. On Saturday
(June 18), for instance, a waning gibbous moon will be positioned 6 degrees
to the lower right of Saturn.
Then, on Tuesday (June 21), as we transition from spring to summer, take
note of the last quarter ("half") moon situated 5 degrees to the lower right
of Jupiter. If you have a telescope, it will be well worth checking out
Jupiter to see all four Galilean moons — arranged not in a straight line but
in a zigzag configuration, all on one side of the planet. Moving outward
from Jupiter, you'll see Io, followed by Europa, then Callisto and, finally,
the largest of the four, Ganymede.
On the following morning (Wednesday, June 22), the moon will come to within
5 degrees to the west (right) of Mars.
Then, from June 23 to 25, the waning crescent moon will occupy the broad
space between Mars and Venus, and we could then imagine it serving as a
proxy for our home planet — a sort of ersatz Earth — to help complete the
planetary sequence.
It will be well worth setting your alarm clock for around 5 a.m. local
daylight time on June 26 to spot an eye-catching celestial tableau involving
a slender crescent moon hovering 2.5 degrees to the left of Venus. And on
this same morning, hovering a half dozen degrees above them, will be the
beautiful Pleiades. You'll be able to fit all three in the same field of
view of a standard pair of 7-power binoculars. Simply exquisite!
Last but certainly not least, on June 27, about 30 to 40 minutes before
sunrise, use binoculars to scan the east-northeast horizon in the
brightening dawn twilight and see if you can catch Mercury, which will have
brightened to magnitude -0.4. And 3.5 degrees to its upper left, you might
also get a glimpse of the now exceedingly thin crescent moon, only 3%
illuminated. As a bonus, see if you can pick out the orange first-magnitude
star Aldebaran, situated about 7 degrees to the left of Mercury.
Almost everyone gets a good view
Perhaps the best thing about this compelling planetary lineup is that it's
visible even from light-polluted cities and towns. All five planets (and the
moon too, of course) are conspicuous enough to shine through the haze and
bright lights of major metropolitan areas.
The only drawback, of course, is that to see the lineup to its fullest
extent, you'll need to arise as dawn is beginning to brighten the eastern
sky. Keep in mind that it will be decades before you'll have another
opportunity to see the planets and moon arranged in such a manner, so don't
miss this chance!
And one final note: Make sure you have an unobstructed view of the eastern
and southern horizons so that you'll have a clear view of the moon and
planets on any given morning. The best views will be either from an elevated
area above any tall buildings or trees, or from a shoreline where you can
look out over open water to a flat sea horizon.
Good luck, and may you have clear skies!
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Space & Astrophysics