Rare Planetary Alignment - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn

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Fri 12 Aug 2016 - Wed 31 Aug 2016

This year has treated us to a rare planetary alignment with five planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn falling into line. All five were visible to the naked eye throughout much of January and February.


In case you missed the show earlier in the year, now is your second chance to catch it. And it is even easier this time around – no need to wake up at dawn. All five planets will be visible at sundown.

How to spot the planets:
To find the planets look at the western sky at sundown. The planets will appear in two clusters: Jupiter, Venus and Mercury just above the horizon and Mars and Saturn almost directly overhead.

Jupiter will be easiest to see – a big bright dot quite low above the horizon. Venus will be trickier as it will sit only about 10 degrees above the horizon where it will be hard to spot because of the remaining light cast by the setting sun. To find Venus, experts suggest holding your arm outstretched toward the horizon. This is roughly 10 degrees, where Venus will appear below Jupiter. Mercury is a faint dot near Jupiter and Venus.
Mars will be relatively easy to find thanks to its distinctive red glow, while Saturn will be conveniently positioned directly overhead next to it.

To make finding the planets a little easier, you can use a free stargazing app, like Skyview . With the app installed point the phone just above the horizon to find Jupiter, Venus and Mercury and then overhead to locate Mars and Saturn. The app will identify the planets and surrounding stars for you.

When to look:
In Sydney the alignment will be visible from the weekend of 12 August to more or less the end of the month. To increase your chances of spotting the fainter planets stay away from the night of the full moon on the 18th. The bright light of the moon is likely to wash out some of the planets. The sundown on Sunday 21 August has been recommended as the best time to spot all five planets.

Where to watch it from:
The main requirement for star gazing is the dark sky, typically meaning away from the city lights. An additional requirement for viewing this particular alignment is the clear view of the horizon to the west where Venus, Jupiter and Mercury will appear.

Some of the popular stargazing locations within short drive of Sydney are: Bankstown Airport, Katoomba Airfield, Mangrove Mountain, Mount Kuring-gai football oval and the Oaks Airfield. Golf courses can also be good especially if they elevated. If you know any other good stargazing spots near Sydney please share them in the comments.

#astronomy
#escape_the_city
#free
#unusual_events
#august
!date 12/08/2016 -- 31/08/2016
%wnsydney