Astronomy buffs will get a special treat this week as five of our solar system's planets align for earthly viewing in the night sky.
Astronomy buffs and others interested in pondering our place in the universe will get a special treat this week as five of our solar system’s planets align for earthly viewing in the night sky.
The best time to catch the show will be just after sunset Tuesday — about 7:11 p.m. in Los Angeles — and the window will be small: Mercury will drop below the horizon not long after.“With this planetary alignment, you can draw a line in the sky and look toward where the sun sets and see a relatively faint thing that looks like a star, and that will be the planet Mercury,” said Mark Morris, a UCLA astronomy professor.
“With binoculars, you can see the moons of Jupiter — good binoculars,” he said. “It’s like a miniature solar system in the way they are arranged.”Such alignments occur when the planets in view are orbiting on the same side of the sun as Earth, from the perspective of Earth. Morris said such alignments happen from time to time but remain rare enough to be a “curiosity” for stargazers.
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