FIVE planets visible on Saturday morning – how to see Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Neptune and Uranus

Science
By William

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Look up this weekend! FIVE planets will be visible in the sky Saturday morning – how to see Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Neptune and Uranus

  • On June 17, an hour before sunrise, a rare planetary parade will be seen
  • Alignments occur when a number of planets are in the same constellation

By Lauren Haughey

Updated:

Stargazers are in for a treat this weekend, as five planets will line up in a rare planetary parade.

Mercury, Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune and Saturn should be visible an hour before sunrise on June 17 as they line up near the eastern horizon.

Three of the brighter planets – Jupiter, Mercury and Saturn – can be viewed with the naked eye, provided you’re in a good spot.

But Brits need binoculars or a telescope to see Neptune and Uranus, the latter being 7° lower than Jupiter, according to Star walk.

Planetary parades or alignments occur when a number of planets are in the same constellation.

Mercury, Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune and Saturn should be visible an hour before sunrise on June 17 as they line up near the eastern horizon

TIPS TO SEE THE ALIGNMENT

  • Move as far away from city lights as possible to a place with dark skies
  • Be prepared and ready before the sun goes down
  • Check ahead to make sure the weather is nice and clear
  • Find a clear spot with a clear view of the horizon
  • If possible, keep binoculars or even a telescope handy for a better view

This alignment of planets is quite unusual, and the next event will occur in April 2024.

It will take place in a 93-degree sector, meaning the planets will appear closer together in a small area of ​​the sky.

Saturday morning is the best time to view each of the planets, but Saturn will rise in the middle of the night on June 16 in the constellation Aquarius.

During the parade, Jupiter is in the constellation of Aries and Mercury in the constellation of Taurus.

But to see these, it’s important to find a good place to stargaze.

NASA recommends checking the weather forecast in advance to find a clear area.

This should also provide an unobstructed view of the horizon, avoiding buildings and blaring city lights.

Bringing binoculars or even a telescope is also useful, especially for spotting the less obvious planets such as Neptune and Uranus.

To distinguish between stars and planets, observers must look for objects that do not twinkle among the flickering stars.

Don’t worry if you miss the spectacle.

Brits need binoculars or a telescope to see Neptune and Uranus, the latter being 7° lower than Jupiter (stock image)

Brits need binoculars or a telescope to see Neptune and Uranus, the latter being 7° lower than Jupiter (stock image)

There are plenty of other spectacles taking place in the night sky this month.

The Northern Hemisphere experiences the longest day of the year on June 21, which is known as the summer solstice.

Brits will therefore have much longer days and shorter nights, allowing us to spend more time in the summer sun.

Tomorrow at 20:40 GMT, the Moon will also appear near Mercury in the constellation of Taurus.

To easily identify this month’s planets, the educational astronomy application Star Walk recommends using the Sky Tonight app, which can be pointed at the night sky to provide a live view of what’s going on.

DOES PLANET ALIGNMENT HAVE AN EFFECT ON EARTH?

The planets in our solar system are never in one perfectly straight line as they show in the movies.

If you look at a two-dimensional chart of the planets and their orbits on a piece of paper, you might think that all the planets will eventually orbit around the same line.

In reality, the planets do not all orbit perfectly in the same plane. Instead, they swing around in different orbits in three-dimensional space. For this reason, they will never be perfectly aligned.

Planetary alignment depends on your point of view. If three planets are in the same region of the sky from Earth’s point of view, they don’t necessarily have to be in the same region of the sky from the Sun’s point of view.

Alignment is therefore an artifact of a point of view and not something fundamental about the planets themselves.

Even if the planets were all aligned in a perfectly straight line, it would have negligible effects on Earth.

Fictional and pseudoscientific authors like to argue that a planetary alignment would mean adding up all the planets’ gravitational fields to make something massive that interferes with life on Earth.

In reality, the gravitational pull of the planets on Earth is so weak that they have no significant effect on life on Earth.

There are only two objects in the solar system with enough gravity to significantly affect the Earth: the moon and the sun.

The sun’s gravity is strong because the sun is so massive. The gravitational effect of the Moon on Earth is strong because the Moon is so close.

The Sun’s gravity causes the Earth’s annual orbit and therefore, when combined with the Earth’s tilt, causes the seasons.

The moon’s gravity is primarily responsible for the daily ocean tides. The near alignment of the sun and moon does have an effect on Earth because their gravitational fields are so strong.

This partial alignment occurs every full moon and new moon and leads to extra strong tides called “spring tides.”

The word ‘spring’ here refers to the fact that the water seems to spring up the shore every two weeks with the extra strong tides – not that they only occur in the spring season.

Source: dr. Christopher S. Baird/West Texas A&M University

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