Five major planets in our solar system up in a row over the weekend in a celestial event a conjunction. In many parts of the world, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn could be with the naked eye (without the need for a telescope). The rare planetary conjunction visible in clear skies before dawn. The AccuWeather website the best time to this event was about an hour before sunrise. Astronomer Professor Lucie Green the event as being, "like a string of pearls out from close to the horizon". Professor Green was particularly happy at seeing Mercury, which is usually hard to . She said: "It is very satisfying [to] this faint twinkling planet."
AccuWeather said a conjunction in this order would not visible from Earth again for another 20 years. The next time it will will be August 2040. It said this planetary event special because the planets in the order they are from the sun, with Saturn being the farthest away and Mercury the nearest. Another astronomer, Dr Diana Hannikainen, said the conjunction noteworthy on Friday morning as a crescent moon the five planets. She said the alignment was a "delightful sight". The conjunction is rare because the five planets all different orbits of the sun. Mercury 88 days to the sun, while Saturn takes 29 years.
