A rare planetary alignment is about to take place in June

If you have never seen the alignment of the brightest planets in our Solar System, June will give you this opportunity, as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will align throughout the month just before dawn. Also you will be able to locate Uranus and Poseidon if you have binoculars or a telescope. The rare phenomenon will gradually become visible from the beginning of June and it will be possible to locate all five planets in the sky, as long as the weather conditions helps to have unlimited view.

Usually just before dawn, near the horizon, we see Mercury and Venus, where Venus is the brightest star in the sky. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are higher in the sky and they are visible from the southeast side of the horizon. Jupiter is the brightest planet and is located between Mars and Saturn. The most distant planets are Uranus and Poseidon which can be detected with the help of a telescope or binoculars, because they are not visible to the naked eye.

So from the middle of June it will be possible to locate all 5 planets of our Solar System just before dawn, since Mercury will gradually become more and more easily visible just before sunrise. However, by the end of the month, even the Moon will participate in this rare planetary alignment. Specifically, on June 18th it will be close to Saturn, in the constellation of Capricorn and on June 21th it will be close to Jupiter, in the constellation of Pisces. The next day the Moon will approach Mars and on June 26th will be close to Venus. She will complete her journey in our starry sky on June 27th, where she will be close to Mercury.

Ecliptic : The mean plane which the orbits of the planets around the sun are delineated

The phenomenon of planetary alignment is something that only happens in the Earth's sky. In fact, if we were looking the planets of our Solar System from another point in the Universe, their position would be completely different. So all the planets follow this "path", having an ecliptic motion and orbit around the Sun. However, most of the time the planets are not close to each other, which means that other times some planets are visible in the morning and others in the afternoon. Consequently it is quite rare this planetary formation.

June therefore offers a special opportunity to see all the planets lined up in the morning sky and will be able to admire the planetary formation throughout the month with the culmination of planetary alignment taking place on June 24th.

With information from Meteoweb.eu