Three Planets Racing this Weekend

William Robinson writes "This report asks you to keep your eyes on the skies this weekend, when a rare triple-planetary alignment is going to happen. It promises a stellar show for star-gazers. Scott Young of the Manitoba Museum Planetarium says the planets in question -- Mercury, Venus and Saturn -- are all big enough to be seen without a telescope."

Comments

All planets aligned ..

[Anonymous Coward]

Time to go and dig some mummies in Egypt

That's no Moon! It's uh, um..

[Mulletproof]

" And while star-gazers will be able to obscure all three planets simply by holding their outstretched thumb to the sky, Young reminds them appearances can be deceiving.

"In reality, the planets are millions of kilometres apart," he said. "They only appear close in the sky because of our perspective. Saturn is actually over a billion kilometres behind Mercury."

Oh thank God. I thought they were all going to crash into one another, showering the earth with deadily meteors or something. THANK YOU for thet reminder, Mr. Young.

Planet Racing? ...

[GreatRedShark]

I want to know what odds the people in Vegas are giving to Mercury. I've got a lucky feeling about that planet!

Re:Planet Racing? ...

[AndroidCat]

Careful. Last century Mercury was called for cheating. Luckily Einstein was able to get him off, but there's just something dodgy about that planet and god of thieves.

Longhorn

[Anonymous Coward]

Next year, the planets will all align themselves to spell out the word, Longhorn, to kick off Microsoft's new advertising campaign for the upcoming version of Windows. This of course, all depends if thier wireless networks can't be hacked again while they are sending the signals to the planets.

Correction

[QuickFox]

It promises a stellar show for star-gazers.

I'm afraid you've misunderstood this. It's not a stellar, it's planetary.

Big or small moon?

[LiquidCoooled]

When aligned, the planets will fit into a piece of sky the same size as a full moon.

Is that the low hanging moon or the smaller moon?

US Race Fans Widely Dissapointed

[Sv-Manowar]

After a six car US F1 GP, only three planets racing this weekend?

Re:US Race Fans Widely Dissapointed

[haystor]

If you step back just a bit you can get the earth into view also.

Am I the only one wondering

[sholde4]

Time could be helpful...

My money is on Mercury...

[gunner800]

It has the inside track.

Re:Are there any simulations available for viewing

[LiquidCoooled]

I found some simulation images:

Here is photo1: ...

Here is the zoomed in annotated version:

Mercury Venus
\ /
o o o
\
Saturn

Re:Science for non-scientists

[TrappedByMyself]

Take them out on successive nights and describe how we can figure out the heliocentric universe from the observations.

"After our first date I couldn't get a hold of her. I even left a message telling her how I would teach her how to figure out the heliocentric universe from our observations. Hmmm, she must have left town for an emergency, but lost my number and couldn't call. Let me sit by the phone and wait."