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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. 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.

  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. bah! i've seen this already... by spike666 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Theres great footage of this event in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. if i had my dvd and player i'd tell you the timecode.

    now i just need to round up my illuminati buddies and head off to siberia...