Anyone looking to the sky in the early hours over the next few days will - weather permitting - get a real treat. In what astronomers often refer to as a 'planetary parade', seven planets will line up.
It will be the first time in 18 years that the celestial event has taken place. It will see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus align.
Experts say the best time to look out for them will be about half an hour before sunrise from June 24 to June 27. Five of the planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – will be visible to the naked eye on Friday. The remaining two – Uranus and Neptune – will be too dim to see unaided, but you could spot them with binoculars or a telescope by around June 27, reports ChronicleLive.
The seven planets have not appeared in the same line across the horizon since December 2004. Astronomer and founder of Stargazing London, Tom Kerss, told the Sun newspaper: "It's well worth setting an early alarm and peering out from your garden, or any south/east-facing window or balcony available to you.
"The planets are easy to pick out even in the relatively light summer sky. Unlike stars, they don't appear to twinkle, and Mars is noticeably orange, whereas Saturn is faintly golden."
The news brought the poet out in the twitter account of NASA in the US. It read: "Planets align. It’s fine. What is time? Does that even rhyme? Look up starting tonight to see Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn spread out and appear to line up in the sky. The crescent moon joins them on June 23."
As NASA points out, this alignment is even more special due to another sighting which is set to take place and the waning crescent Moon is set to be visible in between Venus and Mars. However, the moon won't appear in alignment with the planets.
