Parade of Planets: Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter To Align With the Moon in the Predawn Skies This Weekend

(Photo : Getty Images/ Brad McGinley Photography)

The coming weekend will give many people an opportunity to view an astronomical phenomenon as three planets fall in line with the crescent moon.

Alignment of Planetary Trio

Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn will appear in line in the eastern sky on July 6, roughly an hour before daybreak. It's happening just a few weeks after a similar celestial event took place earlier this month.

The time for the planetary alignment to start will vary depending on the location. It simply means that viewers need to find out when the sunrise commences and start viewing an hour before.

Jupiter will be a bright planet, about 10 degrees above the horizon, heading almost in a line toward the south with Mars and Saturn. Although no lining up of Uranus and Neptune will occur as other planets within the line of sight, such planetary bodies will still be observable through high-powered binoculars or telescopes.

A crescent moon will also fall in line with the trio of planets, shining right between Mars and Saturn.

The easy-to-see alignment will be visible even without using a telescope, although stargazers will need to wake up early to see the event since this time of the year has some of the earliest sunrises. The best time to view the planetary alignment will be about 30 minutes before sunrise, in rural areas, without any light pollution and with a clear view of the horizon.

Should the view remain cloudy on Saturday, a similar event is in the offing for Sunday morning, which will give another opportunity to viewers to witness the celestial alignment. The last event occurred in the early hours of June 3, showing off Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

The International Space Station will also make bright passes over the US before sunrise on Saturday and Sunday, meaning those waking up to see the planets and Moon could check when the station is visible from their location.

Unlike the prior event when six planets lined up in a straight row, this time around, the upcoming event is considered a mini planetary alignment.

Why Do Planets Align?

The planets are in the Sun's orbit, each moving at a different speed and distance from the Sun. Thus, with regard to our night sky, they often move relative to each other. On occasion, their paths appear to cross, an occurrence called an opposition.

For example, Jupiter is on an almost 12-year detour around the Sun, while that of Mars is almost two years. With these orbital periods, once in a while, Mars and Jupiter will wind up positioned in such a way that they appear right next to each other in the sky, making temporary alignments.

Because the planets of the Solar System do not orbit the Sun perfectly in the same plane, it is rather rare for more than two planets to align at once, although it does happen.

The term "planetary alignment" does not mean that all the planets fall in a perfectly straight line in space; rather, it is a situation in which a number of planets seem close to one another from Earth's vantage point. In celestial terminology, this is simply referred to as a "conjunction."

The alignments of the planets which we see from Earth are a matter of our line of sight. For instance, even when Mars plus Venus appear very close in the sky, they can be many millions of miles apart in space.