Rare Sight For Amateur Astronomers as Five Planets Align

Amateur astronomers are preparing for a heavenly treat from Friday as the five planets visible to the naked eye line up in order of their distance from the sun across the pre-dawn sky. From a report: For those who can face the early start, and have an unobstructed view of the horizon to the east and south-east, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, could all be visible before the faintest, Mercury, vanishes in the glare of sunrise. It is not uncommon to see two or three planets close together, but the five that can be spotted with the naked eye have not appeared in order, as viewed from the northern hemisphere, since December 2004. "This is really cool," said Prof Beth Biller, personal chair of exoplanet characterisation at Edinburgh University's institute for astronomy. "We now know of many other stars hosting multiple planets. This is a rare opportunity to see the same thing closer to home, with all five 'naked eye' planets in our solar system visible at once." The planets of the solar system orbit the sun in a remarkably narrow plane, meaning that when viewed from Earth, they appear to lie close to an imaginary line in the sky called the ecliptic. The five planets will rise above the horizon in the early hours of Friday, though it may be hard to see them all until later in the month.

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