Saturday 30 January 2016

Six naked-eye planets



In the last week of January and into the first week of February, all six naked-eye planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Earth - will be visible at the same time.

In the last week of January and into the first week of February, all six naked-eye planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Earth - will be visible at the same time.
Starting late-January, in the morning sky shortly before sunrise, six planets will be visible at the same time. The trickiest planet to catch will be Mercury, which - as the planet nearest the Sun and thus never moving too far from our bright star - will be low in the east before sunrise.
Start looking on the morning of January 23, when super-low Mercury may be visible before sunrise. It gets easier each morning afterwards.
From January 26 to about February 07, the Moon joins the sextet, waning to a beautiful slender crescent on February 06, when it makes a spectacular grouping with Venus and Mercury - this is not to be missed!