The Moon in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, with the Very Large Telescope in the foreground. Image © Y. Beletsky, ESO, 2009.

A parade of 5 planets in the morning sky

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Please wait
Loading 0/4
Click and drag to rotate
Mouse wheel to zoom in/out
Touch with mouse to dismiss
The sky at

All five of the planets that are visible to the unaided eye planets will be above the horizon at the same time, shortly before sunrise. However, Venus and Saturn will be very tricky to see since they will rise very shortly before the Sun. To see them you will need to have an exceptionally flat eastern horizon, for example by observing over an ocean horizon at the coast. At sunrise, they will have altitudes of 3.8° and 5.5° respectively.

Additionally, Mercury will be quite tricky to see since it will also rise shortly before the Sun. It will also be visible only if you have a flat eastern horizon, clear of obstructions such as buildings or trees. At sunrise, it will have an altitude of 10.2°.

It is relatively rare for all of the planets to be aligned in one hemisphere so as to all be above the horizon at the same moment. Such an alignment between the five planets which are visible to the unaided eye happens roughly once every 6 years, while an alignment that also includes Uranus and Neptune, which require binoculars or a telescope to be seen, happens around once every 70 years.

However, since the planets in the outer solar system – especially Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – move quite slowly through the constellations, such alignments can occur multiple times in quick succession, or not at all for over 100 years.

The positions of all the planets at sunrise will be as follows:

Planet Altitude
at sunrise
Direction
at sunrise
Planet
rises at
Mag Constellation
Venus 3.8° east 06:30 -3.9 Aquarius
Saturn 5.5° east 06:20 0.9 Aquarius
Mercury 10.2° south-east 05:53 0.2 Aquarius
Mars 25.8° south 01:53 0.3 Ophiuchus
Jupiter 13.9° south-west 21:05 -2.4 Virgo

Celestial coordinates

The positions of each of the planets will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Venus 22h39m 9°54'S Aquarius -3.9 10"1
Jupiter 13h32m 7°58'S Virgo -2.4 42"2
Mercury 22h35m 10°17'S Aquarius 0.2 7"4
Mars 17h28m 22°58'S Ophiuchus 0.3 8"4
Saturn 22h44m 9°39'S Aquarius 0.9 15"6

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

Next/previous occurrences

« Previous Objects simultaneously visible Next »
21 Dec 2022 All seven planets 07 Jan 2123
29 Oct 2104 All five planets that are
visible to the unaided eye
03 Oct 2112

The sky on 20 Apr 2024

The sky on 20 April 2024
Sunrise
06:03
Sunset
19:38
Twilight ends
21:20
Twilight begins
04:22

12-day old moon
Waxing Gibbous

90%

12 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 05:31 11:57 18:23
Venus 05:43 12:07 18:31
Moon 16:33 22:54 05:05
Mars 04:41 10:28 16:16
Jupiter 07:05 14:12 21:19
Saturn 04:27 10:05 15:42
All times shown in EDT.

Source

The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.

Related news

18 Mar 2112  –  Mercury at highest altitude in morning sky
26 Mar 2112  –  Mercury at greatest elongation west
03 Jun 2112  –  Mercury at highest altitude in evening sky
07 Jun 2112  –  Mercury at greatest elongation east

Image credit

The Moon in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, with the Very Large Telescope in the foreground. Image © Y. Beletsky, ESO, 2009.

Share

Fairfield

Latitude:
Longitude:
Timezone:

41.14°N
73.26°W
EDT

Color scheme