Planetary alignment visible in the Okanagan, North America
Astronomical observers will be able to catch a glimpse of all the galaxy’s planets over the coming days.
The planets first started to align in January, but a B.C.-based astronomer said the final days of February should be good for seeing them all.
“They’re not all in a line like right next to each other, but they are very spread across the sky,” Charles Ennis, President of the Sunshine Coast Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and past president of the RASC, told Vernon Matters.
“[Thursday, Feb. 27], at sunset, you’re going to see Mercury and Saturn setting in the west, and just above that you’re going to see Venus, which is going to be very easy to see because it is a very bright object.
“Jupiter is up in Taurus in the southern sky, also very bright and very easy to see, and Mars is up in Gemini. In between these, if you’ve got a large telescope, you’re going to be able to see Neptune and Uranus because they’re both up there as well.”
While Ennis works with a proper electron telescope, he said “citizen scientists” who are interested in seeing the planets won’t need that much equipment to get a good look at them.
“It’s easy to [see] Venus and Mercury because those are inner planets and you can do those with binoculars. Just like the moon they have phases, so you’ll get crescent-Venus and crescent-Mercury,” Ennis explained.
“Jupiter you should, with a good pair of binoculars, be able to see planet with the four Galilean moons.
“Saturn is now right on the horizon at sunset, so it might be a little harder to capture that one, but Mars is just starting to drift away from it’s close approach and it’s still pretty big in the sky and with a small telescope you should be able, in a [clear] sky, to see some surface features, maybe a polar cap.”
Ennis told Vernon Matters Mercury had previously been down below the horizon but had been rising in the sky, though Venus and Saturn have been dipping lower, so there would only be a few more opportunities to see them all in the night sky.
The President of the Sunshine Coast Centre of the RASC said seeing all the planets out at once was fairly rare, occurring maybe once every few years.
He also added that while stargazing would be easier in more remote areas without light pollution, people should still be able to catch sight of the planets in urban centres.
“They’re very bright. There’s this old saying ‘starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight,’ I’m just about certain that what you’re looking at is probably not a star, the first star you see is probably going to be a planet, it’s going to be Venus or Jupiter or Mars because they’re very, very bright,” Ennis said.
“So even in an urban setting you should be able to pick them out quite easily. Venus will pop out first in the western sky and then Jupiter will be in the south quite high, and a little bit further southeast you’ll see Mars and it’s got a very distinctive red colour so it’s not hard to do.”
Anyone interested in learning more about astronomy was encouraged to visit the RASC website.