DANCE OF THE PLANETS!!!!!

Be sure to catch a trio of planets – Mercury, Venus and Jupiter – in the deepening western twilight during the final week of May, 2013. The sky chart above is for tonight (May 23). And notice that the planets are low in the west: they’ll follow the sun beneath the horizon around nightfall. So go outside early to look for them. Find an unobstructed horizon in the direction of sunset. All three planets will appear near the sunset point on the horizon at dusk. Is this a triple conjunction or a planet conjunction.

 If your sky is clear, you should be able to see the sky’s brightest and second-brightest planets – Venus and Jupiter, respectively – popping out some 45 minutes (or sooner) after sunset. About one hour after sunset, there’s a good chance that you’ll see Mercury pairing up with Venus. We are now hearing from people around the world that Mercury is visible to the eye. At mid-northern latitudes, Mercury and Venus set around one and one-quarter hours after the sun. So look for them in bright twilight! From May 24 to 29, all these planets will be less than 5o apart from one another. In the parlance of stargazers, this is called a planetary trio. Typical binoculars cover about 5o of sky, so look for these three planets to fit within a single binocular field in late May 2013!