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Spectacular 5 Planet Lineup Visible This Month

Posted by michael on from the under-a-wide-and-starry-sky dept.

MartinB writes "Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are lining up in order of distance from the Sun at the end of April, according to The BBC. They'll be visible without a telescope to observers in the Northern Hemisphere from 20th April."

3 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The really interesting thing about this by rutherford · · Score: 2, Informative

    Additionally Ikeya-Zhang will meet the Andromeda Galaxy tomorrow (April 4th and 5th) and the moon will cover Jupiter this month (16.04)
    Now I only need a better Sky. Light pollution is really a problem for all these fine objects which are near the horizon.

  2. Too early by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The show starts around April 18 and lasts a month. I may even try to track the planets myself by taking a few 8-sec-exposure pictures during that interval (no telescope required).

    So I sincerely hope that Slashdot will run this as a main page story when it starts, but an April 3rd annoucement is just too early. Mercury is currently on the wrong side of the Sun! Give it two more weeks.

  3. Re:The really interesting thing about this by rdslater596 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Except the correct order should be Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn if they were indeed lining up in order of closest to the sun. Saturn is the furthest naked-eye visible planet.

    --
    Cthulhu for president!