Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn to align in rare treat for UK skygazers

Experts say the best viewing window is between 5am and 6am BST from Wednesday

A spectacular show of stars in the night sky outside Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Reuters

Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will line up in the sky this week and could stay visible to the naked eye for a number of weeks.

Skygazers will be treated to the sight from Wednesday all the way through to early May. The four planets will be visible before sunrise.

Experts say the best viewing window is between 5am and 6am BST over the coming days, just after the planets rise above the horizon, but before the Sun follows them.

The Moon will also join the line-up on April 23, with a fifth planet — Mercury — becoming visible from June 24.

Despite appearing from Earth to be lined up, the planets will not actually be lined up in space.

“To view this event, all you require is a clear eastern horizon. No specialist viewing equipment is necessary,” said Jake Foster, an astronomy education officer at Royal Museums Greenwich.

“These types of alignments in our skies, sometimes known as planet parades, only occur from our perspective here on the Earth.

“The planets themselves are not physically aligned in space during these events, meaning that the perceived alignment is unique to our perspective as observers on the Earth.

“These events tend to happen once every few years, the last one taking place in 2020.

“This year, we are particularly lucky as we will witness an alignment of five planets visible to the unaided eye on June 24, with Mercury joining the other four visible planets as an added bonus.”

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However, Dr Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, said spotting Mars and Saturn in this line-up may be difficult.

“This is a nice conjunction, as the brightest naked eye planets are visible together in a line, with Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn from east to west,” he said.

“The event is best viewed at dawn, but not too late, as the brightening sky will wash out Mars and Saturn in particular.

“From the UK and similar latitudes, and further north, this will be hard to see as the planets are very low down at sunrise and the sky will be very bright by then.

“I’m not confident that Mars and Saturn will be visible at all from here, at least to the naked eye.

“You can try to spot the planets with binoculars, using an online star chart to work out where to look. But you must only do that before sunrise, as looking at the Sun with binoculars or a telescope can cause serious damage to your eyes — as can looking at the Sun with your eyes alone.”