A rare planetary alignment will happen over the weekend. If you wish to see Mercury, Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune, and Saturn together, watch out for them before sunrise over the weekend.
Planetary Alignment Over the Weekend
Five planets are set to align and grace your morning sky on Saturday.
One hour before sunrise on June 17, Mercury, Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune, and Saturn will be visible as they align near the eastern horizon. If you're in a decent place, you can see Jupiter, Mercury, and Saturn, three of the brighter planets, with your naked eye, Daily Mail reported.
However, according to Star Walk, Brits will need binoculars or a telescope to see Neptune and Uranus, the latter of which is 7° lower than Jupiter.
When several planets are situated in the same constellation, it causes planetary parades, also known as alignments.
The next time these planets will align will be in April 2024, making this alignment relatively rare.
The planets will appear closer to one another in a limited area of the sky since it will take place in a 93-degree sector. The optimum time to see each planet is on a Saturday morning. However, on June 16, Saturn will rise in the middle of the night in the constellation of Aquarius.
Jupiter and Mercury will both be in the constellations of Aries and Taurus, respectively, during the parade.
Before the new Moon at 12:37 a.m. (ET) on June 18, MRT claims that June 17 is the best day to see them in the US.
Locating a decent stargazing location is crucial to get a good look at the planetary parade.
NASA advises looking up the weather forecast in advance to locate a cloudless location. As long as there are no structures or distracting city lights in the way, this should also give a clear view of the horizon.
It's also a good idea to bring binoculars or even a telescope to see obscure planets like Neptune and Uranus. There are a ton of additional nighttime sky spectacles happening this month.
On June 21, the summer solstice, the northern hemisphere will have its longest day of the year.
As a result, Brits will experience much longer days and shorter nights, allowing us to enjoy the summer heat for longer.
What Is Planetary Alignment?
Planetary alignments are beautiful celestial events that you can observe without special equipment. It is an astronomical term used to describe the event when several planets simultaneously gather closely on one side of the Sun.
The planetary parade is a colloquial term that means, in the broadest sense, that several planets are present in the sky in one night.
Here are the two common definitions, per Star Walk.
1. An astronomical event where planets congregate simultaneously near one side of the Sun.
Some individuals believe that, as viewed from the Sun, the planets of the Solar System can form a straight line. However, the planets can't fully align in three dimensions. Only seven times in the present millennium have all the planets gathered in one quadrant, which is even a looser grouping (a 90-degree sector).
2. A visual phenomenon occurs when, as seen from Earth, the planets look near one another in a tiny area of the sky.
It looks to the observer that numerous planets are aligned in the sky when the Earth is one of the planets collected on one side of the Sun. The alignment is more stunning when the area where the planets are visible is smaller.
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