Very special treat for sky gazers over the next few weeks
If you have no issue with getting up early in the morning, than you have something exciting out there in the sky. The skies have something very special for the coming few weeks.
Till February 20, you can witness five planets spread in the sky together just prior to dawn. The five planets include Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter, and you can see them nearly 45 minutes before sunrise.
According to Sky and Telescope, this is the first time ever that all five of the so-called naked-eye planets are visible together in the pre-dawn sky in over 10 years.
The group has been dubbed, ‘naked-eye planets’ because each one of it can be seen with naked eyes and you don’t need binoculars or a telescope.
However, this doesn’t means that you can easily find them. In case you don’t take part in much skywatching, you can get confuse in picking the planets out of a sky packed with stars. Don’t worry here are the tips that will make it easier for you:
At first, you must know when sunrise takes place in your region. The US Naval Observatoryhas an easy tool.
Besides, to assist you get your bearings and to make search for the planets easy, you can download an astronomy app and must get used to using it within your home before moving out into the cold.
You can also take assistance from the charts in numerous popular astronomy websites, including, Astronomy.com, Earthsky.org, Sky & Telescope or you can talk to your local planetarium to get information about whether a special show is planned or not. Every day in these few weeks is going to be quite exciting for the skywatchers.