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Monday's Planet Views Best Until 2036

Posted by timothy on from the hey-we've-all-got-naked-eyes dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NASA is reporting that Monday night, March 22nd, offers a rare, naked-eye glimpse of our five prominent astronomical neighbors--Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and the Moon--in close proximity in the night sky, near to the familiar Orion constellation. This contrasts with the picture of the 'Fab Five' shot by Voyager looking back on the inner solar system. Monday's aligned view is not likely to appear in this configuration again until 2036."

6 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. "Not likely?" by notsoclever · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'd say it's pretty much certain that we won't see that configuration again until 2036, unless Jupiter is knocked out of orbit or something...

    --
    There are 10 kinds of people: ones who understand ternary, ones who don't, and ones who think this joke is about binary
  2. Been looking forward to this by shadowbearer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The 35mm camera and the 28mm widefield lens are ready. :) Wish my digital could do longer exposures...

    Get outside and take a look at the sky during the next couple weeks. It's worth it. Having this many planets in this small a section of sky doesn't happen very often. Take your kids out there too, and explain to them what they are seeing (it's a good time to demonstrate to them that planets really don't twinkle like stars do, and why - they can see the evidence with their own eyes.)

    Oh, and there will almost certainly be a lot of good pix on alt.binaries.pictures.astro after the 22nd.

    Clear skies everyone.

    SB

    --
    It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
    1. Re:Been looking forward to this by shadowbearer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Google is your friend

      Being rather busy at the moment...

      SB

      --
      It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
    2. Re:Been looking forward to this by jefft · · Score: 4, Funny
      The spread is 135 degrees, which I'm not sure really counts as a small section of sky.

      No problem you just need to back up a little.

      --
      The Math Maestro Tutoring Services in Seattle
  3. Stellarium for finding them by isn't+my+name · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And if you need help identifying which is which, or exactly where they are, Stellarium is a great GPL'd product available for Linux, Win and Mac.

    Sourceforge page

  4. Astrology is finally losing ground... by no+longer+myself · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I can remember a decade or two ago, people actually believed that such cosmic alignments would result in earthquakes, floods, and other supernatural disasters. Trying to rationally explain the effects of gravity to them didn't help much either.

    It's nice to regularly see stories like this without having the dreaded doomsday angle.

    Of course there's always a catch to these stories: You won't see anything like this until (insert far-off date here). With so many fascinating things in astronomy, you'll have plenty of opportunities to see an amazing show on any given clear night.