Rare Alignment Of The Planets Starts Tonight

Talk about a flashback. Imagine the 5th Dimension singing about the “dawning of the age of Aquarius”. You know the one - happening when “Jupiter aligned with Mars”. Well guess what? It’s happening tonight!

Starting tonight, the planets will be in a rare alignment. In the overnight and early morning hours, all 5 of the nearest bright planets in our Solar System will be visible in the sky at the same time. This is the first time Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter have aligned in a decade.

You’ll have to stay up very late tonight --or get up super-early Wednesday morning-- to see this “quirk of the universe.” The five planets will all be visible to the naked eye in a diagonal row just before dawn on Wednesday morning, and every morning after that until February 20th.

Jupiter will rise first, followed by the red-tinted Mars, golden-looking Saturn, brightest planet Venus and lastly Mercury.

Huffington Post says the exact time will vary each day and depend on where you are located.

To keep track of the planets and other cool things you can see in the night sky, check out earthsky.org, or download the NASA app to your smartphone.