beginning on Friday Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be aligned in planetary order

[IcyPeas]

Don't forget to look up this month to see the start of a rare, five-planet alignment grace the night sky.

Beginning on Friday, the five planets of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn aligned in planetary order.

This rare phenomenon has not occurred since December 2004, and this year, the distance between Mercury and Saturn will be smaller, according to Sky & Telescope.

Stargazers will need to have their binoculars handy along with a clear view of the eastern horizon to spot Mercury near the start of the month, the space magazine said. As June progresses, Mercury will become brighter and easier to see, according to Diana Hannikainen, observing editor of Sky & Telescope.

The rest of the planets should be consistently visible to the naked eye, she added.

The best time to view the five planets is in the 30 minutes before sunrise, she said. The night before you plan to view the alignment, check when the sun will rise in your area.

https://abc7.com/planets-align-5-planet-alignment-planetary-june-2022-five/11932714/

Link to tweet

[Skittles]

1. anyone else read Freddy Mercury in that title

[viva la]

2. Me too!

Of course, he would be a bright light in the dark of night.

[Skittles]

4. THE brightest

[progree]

3. Here's what's in the sky from any time from anywhere (set your city location)

https://in-the-sky.org/skymap2.php

(get rid of that deep space junk with that checkbox below the sky map and on the left side -- nobody can see any of that stuff unless they live 50 miles from the nearest street lamp, so its just clutter)

Note the Ukraine flag on the upper right

[Stargleamer]

5. Neptune marches to a different drummer n/t

[UTUSN]

6. What does it mean for us Pisces?!1

[question everything]

7. Hoping for clear skies

[elleng]

8. Thanks for the reminder. Saw Venus (I think) this morning, before 6, AND off a bit to the west,

saw 2 others, later obscured by trees. (If Mercury was east of Venus, I missed it.)

[progree]

10. Venus is straight east in the pre-dawn / dawn, very very bright, magnitude -4.0

a short distance above the horizon.

https://in-the-sky.org/skymap2.php

[elleng]

11. Yes, Venus was VERY bright!

[progree]

12. Was wondering what Earth looks like from Venus --

Last edited Tue Jun 7, 2022, 02:47 AM - Edit history (1)

Transit of Venus: what Earth looks like from Venus during rare sky show, January 13, 2015
https://www.foxnews.com/science/transit-of-venus-what-earth-looks-like-from-venus-during-rare-sky-show

During the transit, from Venus's perspective, earth would be opposite the sun, just like a full moon is from earth -- earth's entire disk is lit up as seen from Venus. (Venus being roughly between earth and the sun happens about every 584 days. Actual transits -- where Venus crosses the face of the sun as seen from earth -- are much rarer)

(Earth)      (Venus)      (Sun)   < -- when Earth is opposite the Sun, as seen from Venus

I was just looking at https://in-the-sky.org/skymap2.php and Venus is magnitude -4.0

Viewed from Venus, the Earth would blaze like some stupendously bright bluish-white star in the constellation of Ophiuchus, the serpent holder. Our home planet would appear to blaze at a resplendent magnitude of -6.5. That's nearly five times brighter than Venus would appear for us!

And furthermore, Earth would really would look like the "double planet" that science writers often proclaim it to be, for as seen from Venus, our moon shines like a yellowish-white star of magnitude -2.5 (about the same brightness as Jupiter would look to us) hovering within half a degree to the left of the Earth. As Flammarion noted, "they form a magnificent couple."

The article says actually on-the-ground Venusians wouldn't see anything since they are under a very thick layer of clouds. They'd have to be high up in a balloon or in space to see this.

[lastlib]

9. Can't we have the planets (and stars) align on Thursday, God?

PLEEEEEEZZZZZE?? (thus throwing an asteroid out of its orbit straight into Merde-A-Lardo?)