SEE THREE PLANETS WITH THE NAKED EYE.

[T'Girl]

In the western sky this week. About an hour after sunset

The first thing sky-watchers will see — weather permitting — is the brilliant planet Venus, slightly north of west, in the constellation Gemini. Look for Gemini's twin first magnitude stars, Pollux and Castor, just above Venus.

As the sky gets darker, the planet Mars can be spotted to Venus' left as it appears in the constellation Leo very close to the bright, first magnitude star Regulus.

Further still to the left will be Saturn shining in the western part of the constellation Virgo.

In early July, Venus will have moved rapidly to the left, crossing Cancer into Leo so that now it is next to the star Regulus. Mars, meanwhile, will have moved somewhat to the left. Saturn appears to have hardly moved at all.

In the first week of August, the planets will be crowded into 7-degrees of sky. This is so cool, I love this kind of bare eyes observation, hope to be able to go camping in the eastern Cascade mountains, where this will really show.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100603/sc_space/planettripleplaysaturnmarsandvenusappeartogether

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Cool. But when do we get to see three planets OUTSIDE the ones we normally see with the naked eye, with ANY sort of eye?

Mark

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

This is cool, especially if you consider, that our orbit is located between those of Mars and Venus.
So both of them can only be viewed together when certain allignments are in place.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I'll keep an eye out for that, thanks.