Early morning risers will be treated to a celestial surprise for the next couple weeks, weather permitting.

Starting on Jan. 20, five bright planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — will grace the morning sky in the hour or so before sunrise, marking the first time in more than 10 years the five worlds have made an appearance in the sky together.

If you manage to step outside early enough, you should be able to spot all five planets in something resembling a row across the sky.

Tanya Hill, senior curator at the Melbourne Planetarium, told Mashable Australia the phenomenon will be visible around the world. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, she advises looking in the northern sky and following the planets down towards the east. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, she said to look in the southern sky down to the eastern horizon.

The five planets should be largely visible from Jan. 20 to Feb. 20, she said. Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have been spottable since early in the year, but Mercury completes the quintet as it climbs over the eastern horizon. She recommended late January for optimum viewing, as Mercury will become less visible into February.

Five planets line up in the A.M. sky for 1st time in a decade - https://t.co/Fi2aUrDUsn #astronomy #skywatching pic.twitter.com/3rbDhbJ7hO — Scott Sutherland (@ScottWx_TWN) January 19, 2016

Hill suggested the five planets should be visible without any telescope on a clear morning. "Ancient people from thousands of years ago were able to notice them in the night sky," she said. "No equipment is needed at all."

The order of the planets in the sky will be Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and then Mercury, which is not their order outwards from the sun. "It's just a quirk," Hill said. "We're just at a point of time that all the planets are on the same side of the sun."

The event does not have any particular significance for astronomers, but Hill said it was simply a "great curiosity" to look at all five planets at the same time. "It does show us that the planets orbit on pretty much the same plane," she added. "That's why we see them in a line, because they're hugging the line of the ecliptic, which is also thought to be the path of the sun.

"It's a visual reminder that we live in a very flat solar system."

Hill said the world will be treated to a reappearance of the five planets in early August in the evening sky after sunset, rather than the hours before dawn. "We'll get a better view of it in the Southern Hemisphere [at that time]," she said. "It will be winter here, and the sun will set earlier."

Better set your alarm clock, though. August will be your last chance to spot this planetary line up until 2018.

If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, check out Hill's pointers for spotting the planets. If you're in the North, Sky and Telescope also have a good guide.