Five planets on celestial parade this week

Baku. 25 January. REPORT.AZ/ We have an opportunity to easily see five fellow planets in the solar system at one time, and you don’t need a telescope or even a pair of binoculars, Report was told by Khidir Mikayilov, Deputy Director of the Shamakhi Astrophysical Observatory named after N. Tusi of ANAS (Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences).

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all stretched out in an arc from the southeast to the southwestern sky and can easily be seen with the naked eye, even if you have to put up with heavy urban light pollution in your neighborhood.

Timing is everything, though. In order to see all five you need to look about an hour to 45 minutes before sunrise, not much sooner or later. If you look too early they won’t all be above the horizon, and if you look too late the morning twilight really starts to kick in. Wait until the first reasonably clear morning and see if you can spot our fellow solar orbiters.

Venus is by far the easiest to spot since it’s the brightest star-like object in the sky. Because of where Venus is and Earth is in their respective orbits around the sun, Venus is our closest neighbor in the solar system at just over 105 million miles away. It’s also the second planet out from the sun. In the pre to early twilight Venus will be beaming brightly in the low southeast sky. As bright as it is there isn’t a whole lot to see on Venus even with a larger telescope, because it’s completely shrouded by a thick and poisonous cloud cover complete with acid rain.

The most difficult planet to see is Mercury, but it’s certainly not impossible.