{"id":724,"date":"2024-06-03T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/03\/parade-of-planets-appearing-in-tonights-night-sky-what-you-need-to-know\/"},"modified":"2024-06-03T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T00:01:00","slug":"parade-of-planets-appearing-in-tonights-night-sky-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/03\/parade-of-planets-appearing-in-tonights-night-sky-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Parade of planets\u2019 appearing in tonight\u2019s night sky \u2013 what you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are aligning overnight on 3 June \u2013 but if you want to see it, you will need stargazing equipment.<\/p>\n

The planets will line up in a diagonal arrangement across the sky. Saturn will appear at the top, followed by Neptune, then Mars, Uranus and Mercury, with Jupiter appearing closest to the horizon.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

However, some of the planets will be easier to spot than others.<\/p>\n

\u201cTry looking east-southeast around an hour before sunrise at a location with a very low horizon,\u201d says Gregory Brown, astronomer at Royal Observatory Greenwich.<\/p>\n

\u201cMars and Saturn will be visible by eye, Mars with a distinctly orange tint to it, while Neptune will only be visible through a pair of binoculars or a telescope if you are lucky,\u201d said Mr Brown.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Jupiter, Venus and Uranus may be more difficult to see as they are very close to the sun, meaning they are trickier to spot in the morning twilight.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven under ideal conditions, a dark sky, free from light pollution, Uranus is very dim and challenging to spot,\u201d said NASA-JPL science communicator Ian O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe skyglow near dawn makes matters worse. Neptune is more than six times dimmer than Uranus, so [it] always requires a telescope to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you are going to spot the parade, head out around an hour before dawn. That would be around 3.30am in Land\u2019s End and 2am in John O\u2019Groats.<\/p>\n

When stargazing, it\u2019s best to head away from any sources of light pollution like street lights or houses, and bring a chair and warm clothes as you will need to let your eyes adjust fully.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo explain why it is happening at all, it\u2019s helpful to understand the structure of the solar system,\u201d says Mr Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [solar system\u2019s] planets, including the Earth, all orbit the Sun in a remarkably thin disk-shaped region of space.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means that when the planets look close together in the sky, they appear in a \u201clong trail of bright points in a roughly straight line\u201d.<\/p>\n

This line is what is described as a so-called \u201cparade of planets\u201d.<\/p>\n

Although the parade should begin overnight into Monday, the planets will stay aligned for weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can last quite a while, with the fastest movers, Venus and Mercury, staying within the pattern for a few weeks,\u201d says Mr Brown, \u201cAnd the slowest taking months or even years to leave formation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although there\u2019s a lot of excitement about 3 June, astronomers say there are more exciting displays coming soon that will actually be visible.<\/p>\n

\u201cA \u2018planet parade\u2019 this is not,\u201d said Preston Dyches, a science communicator at NASA-JPL.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real planetary spectacle I would recommend checking out is on June 29, when you\u2019ll be able to see Saturn, the third-quarter moon, Mars, and Jupiter.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are aligning overnight on 3 June \u2013 but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}