By Michelle Poirier [1]
BELLEVILLE – For the next month, five planets will be aligned in the morning sky and visible to the naked eye.
Mercury has joined the planets that are currently visible and now Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter can all be seen, said Kim Hay, secretary of the Kingston chapter [2] of The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada [3].
It’s the first time that this event has happened since January 2005, according to David Patton, associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Trent University [4].
“The best time to see this would be about an hour before the sun rises,” he said. “Basically, if you look too early the planets will not yet be visible, and if you observe too late the sun will be brightening the sky and you wouldn’t be able to see them. The optimal time is just before the sky starts to brighten noticeably.”
Mercury is the hardest planet to spot, but Hay said that over the next few days it will be visible earlier in the morning and easier to see.
“The planets will be sort of spread in an arch across the southern sky,” Patton said. “Ranging from the southeast, where you would see Mercury … to the southwest, where you would see Jupiter. And then the other planets would be in between those two in an arch.”
The planets will be visible from now to around Feb. 20. The middle of this time frame, around Feb. 7, will be the easiest time to spot all the planets, Patton said. The window of opportunity to see all the planets shortens after that date.
The next time that all five planets will be visible will be later this year, from Aug. 13 to 19 in the evenings, Patton said.