See Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in rare phenomenon.
By Sreekanth A Nair
Five planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will align in a straight line after a gap of over a decade, on January 20. If the sky is clear, the five planets would be seen with naked eyes.
The sight will be visible in the southern sky from January 20 to February 20. Since Mercury is close to the horizon, it may be difficult to spot it. But other planets would be easily spotted.
“There will be a dance of the planets, and now is the time to get out and have a look. It will be well worth getting up for,†Dr Robert Massey of the Royal Astronomical Society was quoted as saying by Telegraph.
“People will struggle to see Mercury, it will probably just look like a star but if we get good weather we should be able to see Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter well. But people should have a shot at seeing them all together,†he added.
The five planets will be visible just before dawn starting tomorrow. Last time these planets saw together were in 2005.
“Venus will be very obvious in the south-east and Saturn will be a little bit higher up to the right. Further over at due south, you’ll see Mars and way beyond in the south-east will be Jupiter. They won’t be in an exact straight line because you virtually never get that in astronomy. They will be more scattered,†Massey added.
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Interesting