For The First Time In A Decade, You Can Witness The Five Planets Aligned Without A Telescope

Posted By Parveen

For The First Time In A Decade, You Can Witness The Five Planets Aligned Without A Telescope: Starting today, you will be able to witness a strange celestial alignment of 5 bright planets- Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Such an amazing kind of alignment was last happened more than 10 years back. But only early risers will be able to spot this spectacular view of five planets aligned because these five planets will align in dawn time. They can be seen aligned in a single arc with naked eyes, but for that, you need to wake up early and go out to look for clear sky.

These planets will align from Wednesday, January 20 to February 10, all you need to watch this event is a clear sky and unobstructed view- even no telescope or binocular is required. According to the reports Tanya Hill, senior curator at the Melbourne Planetarium said that this phenomenon will be visible all around the globe. She advised that people living in Southern Hemisphere should look towards north following the planets down to the east. For those living in Northern Hemisphere, she suggested to look towards the southern sky down to the eastern horizon.

For The First Time In A Decade, You Can Witness The Five Planets Aligned Without A Telescope

According to the researchers, prehistoric drawings show that ancient people were able to see this amazing coalition when no magnifying instrument was available. One more interesting thing will happen during this aligning phenomenon- the order of the planets in the sky will be Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury rather than their actual order- Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and then Saturn outwards from Sun. This is happening because Earth is in such a time-space that all the planets are on the same side of the sun.

While most of the planets are already visible before dawn but might not be possible for the human eye to recognized with naked eyes until rest of these heavenly bodies gets lined up. As reported by earthsky.org website, Jupiter will appear first in the evening followed by Mars after midnight and then Saturn, venus, and Mercury will show up till dawn. But you won’t require to stay awake whole night for watching this heavenly alignment as the best time will be in the morning before the sun rises up. You can also check with one of these almanacs to know your local rise times.

How to spot these five planets easily in the sky?

Venus. Above the southeastern horizon, the planet Venus is easiest to spot because as ever it is one of the brightest “stars” in the sky.

Jupiter. Way over the right – in the southwestern sky – will be the planet Jupiter, another one of the most shining objects in the sky.

Between Venus to the left (southeastern sky) and Jupiter (southwestern sky) you can find the three other planets in the sky and two bright stars (Antares and Spica).

Mercury. To the left of Venus (in the southeastern sky) is the planet Mercury, about 5 degrees above the horizon. Sky and Telescope says you can easily recognize Mercury by using three middle fingers that is the height of Mercury above the horizon.

Saturn. To the right of Venus is Saturn. Below Saturn is the star Antares.

Mars. From Saturn, turn your gaze more right to Mars, then the star Spica, and finally Jupiter.

This speculating phenomenon was last occurred in 2005 now after 10 years it is again happening, where for the first time in a decade, you can witness the five planets aligned without a telescope or binocular. This will be a huge event for all space craving people around the world.