June is an exciting month for skywatchers all over the world. From June 17th to 27th, we will have the rare opportunity to observe all the main planets in our solar system clustered together, along with the moon. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event that you won’t want to miss.

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are the five planets in this unusual alignment that can be seen with the naked eye. Each planet is visible even in the light-polluted city sky, with Venus being the brightest and Mercury being the dimmest. Our nearest planets will seem to be distributed throughout the sky in proportion to their distance from the sun.

These close encounters are referred to by astronomers as conjunctions. It is not uncommon for two or three planets to cluster together, but the last time we saw a conjunction of the five brightest planets was in December 2004. The more distant ice giants Uranus and Neptune will also cluster in the same region, although they will be more difficult to identify and need the use of binoculars. Scan the sky between Venus and Mars to locate the greenish Uranus, and between Jupiter and Saturn to locate the blue Neptune.

The vast majority of the world’s population will be able to see this planetary alignment, although some will be better positioned than others. Mercury, the planet nearest to the sun, will be near the horizon in the northern latitudes, above cities such as New York and London, and may be obscured by the brightness of dawn. In these places, the other planets will also be close to the eastern horizon, making it difficult to view all of them.

Don’t miss out on this celestial homecoming and mark your calendars for June 17th-27th. Get your binoculars ready and take in the beauty of our solar system as it aligns before your eyes. Happy skywatching!