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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."

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  1. The really interesting thing about this by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is that they are lining up, as the submitter notes, "in order of distance from the Sun". Planetary lineups occur frequently (about once a fortnight if I remember my astronomy classes) but what happens is that the lineup will be something like "mars, neptune, jupiter, venus"--out of order, see? Lining up in order is a pretty rare occurence, kind of like partial vs total eclipses of the sun.