The wonderful conjunction of five planets that can be seen in the sky this week

Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Mars, and the Moon will line up in an arc in the sky this week, and most of them can be seen with the naked eye. This phenomenon is commonly known as a “planetary parade” and will be visible after sunset in the west.

In order to see this spectacle of nature, you better have it Good view of the horizon and clear sky. A similar alignment could be seen this past summer: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn joined in a rare planetary conjunction.

In plain sight of all, even of the city, Jupiter, Venus, the Moon and Mars should be easily visible. “Uranus has to be visible through a medium-sized telescope, and Mercury is the extra challenge that designers are very much at,” said Jake Foster, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London.

Foster asserted that such alignments are typical of our view of the Earth.

“The planets are not aligned at the moment, they are all scattered throughout the solar system. But it is only from our view that, from time to time, they come so close together in the sky that we can see them together.”

It would be the best day to see the pairing This Tuesday, March 28th.

Give yourself the best chance to discover it by getting away from the bright city lights as the sun goes down. Try to find a place with a clear view and free of obstructions. Observation should take place in the early evening because Mercury and Jupiter will quickly disappear across the horizon.

The easiest way to tell whether you’re looking at planets or stars is to look at the type of light they emit.

“The stars shine, but the planets don’t. So if you see a bright light that’s steady and doesn’t flicker or flicker, you’re definitely looking at one of those planets.” Foster said.

BBC World