See a rare alignment of all the planets in the night sky
The celestial show, best viewed between June 17 and June 27, will be the last time the five brightest planets cluster in the sky until 2040.
A grand celestial reunion is due in Earth’s skies throughout June. Sky-watchers will get a rare chance to see all the major planets in our solar system bunched together—with the moon joining the festivities, too, from June 17 to June 27.
This rare alignment includes the five planets easily spotted with the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Each is bright enough to be seen even in light-polluted city skies, with brilliant Venus being the brightest and Mercury the faintest. Our closest planets will appear to be arranged across the sky in the same order as their distance from the sun.
Astronomers call these planetary close encounters conjunctions. Having two or three planets huddled together is not all that rare,
