The moon will join a parade of planets in the second half of June.
The current early evening sky is devoid of any of the five bright planets you can see with the naked eye. 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 visible across the southern and eastern sky.
It's not uncommon to see two or three bright planets in a single glance, but to have five in view at the same time is quite special. This week's alignment will be very tight, with the five worlds only about halfway across the sky from east to north and almost due south before sunrise.
There are 4 planets in the Good Friday parade.
The five planets will all appear in the same sequence in the sky. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and other planets will be seen from the east- north east horizon. Earth's position in this lineup can be marked by adding the moon and we have an extremely rare configuration.
March 5, 1864 was the last time this type of alignment occurred.
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The moon and Venus are1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556
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The lineup will start with the "lead" planet, Saturn, which will make its appearance around the middle of the night and then move into the predawn hours with Jupiter and then Mars. At the break of dawn, dazzling Venus makes its appearance, followed by 30 or 40 minutes before the sun rises by Mercury.
The moon is rising before the sun sets in local time. There is a bright yellow-white "star" shining in the sky and it is visible to the naked eye. It is possible to see the planet's famous rings with a small telescope. At the first light of the day, it is possible to see the moon in the southeast or south-southeastern sky.
Jupiter is visible early in the morning. The sun rises around 1:30 a.m. in western Pisces. The star is more than 2.5 times brighter than the star in the sky. On June 29th, the big planet comes to western quadrature. The western limb of the planet is less illuminated than the eastern one.
As it approaches Earth, Mars is calling attention to itself. Achernar, the ninth-brightest star in the sky, is a match for it. Mars is a bright orange-yellow color.
Venus rises around the time of the first light of the day. Venus is four times more brilliant than Jupiter. The Pleiades star cluster can be seen from the left by using binoculars.
Mercury is late to the scene. When June began, it was too dim to be seen from the ground. Mercury was 23 degrees west of the sun, at magnitude 0.6, on June 16 and it's barely visible to the untrained eye in the east- northeastern part of the country. It's about 10 degrees to Venus' left. The length of your fist is about 10 degrees. Mercury is about the same altitude in bright twilight as it is in the daytime.
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. A waning gibbous moon will be positioned 6 degrees to the lower right of Saturn on Saturday.
As we transition from spring to summer, take notice of the last quarter moon, which is located to the lower right of Jupiter. If you have a telescope, you can see all of Jupiter's moons, which are arranged in a zigzag pattern on one side of the planet. You can see Io, Callisto, and the largest of the four, Ganymede, as you move out of Jupiter.
The moon will come to within 5 degrees of Mars on June 22.
Then, from June 23 to 25, the waning crescent moon will occupy the broad space between Mars and Venus, and we could think of it as a proxy for our home planet.
Setting your alarm clock for 5 a.m. on June 26 will allow you to see a crescent moon in the sky. The beautiful Pleiades will be overhead on this same morning. You will be able to fit all three in a single pair of binoculars. It's simply beautiful!
If you use binoculars 30 to 40 minutes before sunrise on June 27 you will be able to see Mercury, which will have a magnitude of -0.4. The crescent moon is only 3% illuminated and can be seen from 3.5 degrees to its upper left. If you can locate the orange first-magnitude star Aldebaran, you can get a bonus.
The planetary lineup is visible even from light polluted cities and towns. All five planets are visible through the haze and bright lights of metropolitan areas.
In a city, what equipment do you need for astronomy?
The only downside to seeing the lineup to its fullest extent is that you'll need to come up as dawn is starting to lighten the eastern sky. It will be decades before you have another chance to see the planets and moon in such a way.
If you don't have a clear view of the eastern and southern horizon, you won't be able to see the moon and planets. You can see the sea from either an elevated area above any tall buildings or a shoreline where you can look out over the water.
Good luck, and I hope the skies are clear.
Joe is an instructor at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for a number of publications. We encourage you to follow us on social networking sites.
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