5 planets will light the sky in rare astronomical event this week

Stargazers will get treated to a rare view on Monday night. Five planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus — will light up the sky that evening, aligning to (mostly) be visible by the naked eye.

Now, it might be best to break out a telescope or binoculars if you’ve got them handy, but if you have a clear sky you can see this rare sight.

You’ll have to time when you go star-watching to see it all godown. In an NPR article(Opens in a new tab), Rick Fienberg, senior contributing editor of Sky & Telescope(Opens in a new tab) magazine, recommends that you look for the planets just after sunset on Monday.

“Wait until the sun has set and then go out and look low in that bright part of the sky where the sun has just set with binoculars, and you should see brighter Jupiter next to fainter Mercury,” Fienberg told NPR.

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Venus is bright and should be easier to spot higher in the sky, while Mars should be reddish and near the moon. Uranus is duller and should be spotted near Venus.

You might have just 20-25 minutes(Opens in a new tab) to take in the planets, so you’ll want to be sure you’re set up and ready come sunset. Of course, things like the brightness of twilight or the clearness of the skies will affect your ability to see the planets as well. Like most things, it’ll require some luck.

But if you do get lucky, you’ll have a great evening of stargazing this week.