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Look up TONIGHT: How to see Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars as they line up in the sky

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Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars will all align with the moon in the night sky tonight as “virtually the entire solar system” puts on a show for stargazers.

The spectacle was visible to some after sunset yesterday, but tonight is the best opportunity to spot the “planetary parade” by looking west.

Venus will be the easiest planet to see because it’s the brightest object in the night sky next to the moon, while astronomers say Jupiter and Mars will also be “easily visible with the naked eye,” even from a bright city like London.

However, a telescope will likely be needed to glimpse Mercury and Uranus.

“You pretty much get to see the entire solar system in one night,” astronomer Rory Bentley, of the University of California, Los Angeles, told me. Popular science.

What a view; Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars will line up with the moon in the night sky tonight as ‘virtually the entire solar system’ puts on a show for stargazers

Experts say escaping city life offers the best opportunity for a clearer picture, as urban areas are more affected by light pollution.

HOW TO GET A GOOD VIEW OF THE ‘PLANETARY PARADE’

  1. Stay away from areas with a lot of light pollution, such as parking lots, sports complexes, street lights
  2. Being at a higher altitude helps, because you are above the dense low-altitude air that contains mists, fog, and smoke that mask your view of the stars
  3. Use a stargazing app to focus your gaze on the right part of the night sky
  4. Check the weather – even the best spots are sometimes too cloudy!

5. Look at the western horizon, where you should be able to see three planets in a neat line across the sky, along with the moon, with the naked eye

6. It probably takes a telescope to glimpse Mercury and Uranus

Skywatchers need too to observe in the early evening as Mercury and Jupiter will soon disappear over the horizon.

Professor Beth Biller, from the University of Edinburgh, told MailOnline: ‘The exact UK location is probably not crucial. It is more important to be outside the city and to be somewhere where you have a good view of the horizon.’

A planetary parade occurs when a number of worlds are in the same constellation.

While it is not uncommon to see two or three planets in the sky, an alignment of five is less common.

It happened last year, and in both 2020 and 2016 before that.

Professor Biller added: ‘Venus and Jupiter are both very bright and easy to distinguish, and you may have seen them close together in recent weeks.

‘Mars is slightly fainter, but still very visible to the naked eye. Mercury is starting to get tricky – you need to be in a dark place with a clear view of the horizon if you want to see Mercury.”

Planetary alignments like this happen because the solar system is shaped like a flat disk, with the planets revolving around the same flat region of space.

It means that from time to time they line up along this flat line, with a varying number of planets visible in different orders.

Jake Foster, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, explained how best to catch a glimpse of the spectacle.

“Looking at the western horizon, you should be able to see with the naked eye – so without special equipment – three planets in a neat line across the sky, along with the moon,” he said. sky news.

First look: Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Catherine Heymans, tweeted about the planetary parade last night

Best chance: Experts say escaping city life offers the best chance for a clearer picture as urban areas are more affected by light pollution (stock image)

“If you have a telescope or binoculars, maybe even five planets and the moon.”

The Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Catherine Heymans, tweeted last night about the first look at the planetary parade.

“Fantastic to see so many #PlanetaryParade enthusiasts on Portobello beach tonight,” she wrote.

‘Beautifully clear skies – Venus and Mars look brilliant – just a pity we’re so far north, Jupiter and Mercury essentially merging with the sun. #DoLookUp!’

However, skywatchers need not worry if they miss the spectacle a number of other planetary alignments will also take place this year.

In less than a month, Mercury, Uranus, Venus and Mars are expected to align again in a 35 degree celestial sector.

Then on April 24, a 40-degree sector occurs with Mars, Venus, Uranus, and Mercury converging.

Last year, stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere had the amazing opportunity to stare at Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn at the same time.

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 has an effect on the 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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