Parade

 

 Planetary Parade or a Parade of Planets?

Planets are constantly orbiting the Sun and this lets them also cross each other at some point. This causes some planets to be more visible during the evening, and the rest, in the morning. During the planetary parade, two or more of these planets line up in such a way that they’re visible to the naked eye at one specific time during the day. Moreover, this alignment causes the planets to appear closer to each other and more visible.

What makes the June 3 planetary alignment special is that it will see six planets line up facing the sun – Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune, and Saturn. BUT, there are a couple of very important things that you need to note.

Firstly, planetary parades are not exactly a rare phenomenon and occur every few years, and this will not be the only one. Secondly, the stars will not appear larger than normal in the sky on such days, but their alignment makes it easier for us to see them.

The June 3 cosmic event will last throughout the week, and you can go out just before sunrise to see as many stars as you can.

How to View the Parade of Planets on June 3?

I took to the Stellarium website (visit) to get a proper idea of the alignment on that particular day. The space that you see between Saturn and Mars is where Jupiter will appear. Venus will also share the sky with these planets but is too close to the Sun to be visible.

During the phenomenon, Saturn will appear yellowish in the Eastern morning sky with Mars halfway below appearing as this red tint. Jupiter and Mercury will be hard to spot, with Neptune and Uranus appearing too faint to view with the naked eye.

That’s where the requirement for high-powered binoculars or a telescope comes in. And, if you’re a Space head like me, you will probably end up getting either of those or both. Sadly, for me, being in India, it will be particularly hard to get a good look at this phenomenon.

However, if you are in New York, you are golden! Between 5 AM to 5:26 AM PT (5:30 PM to 5:56 PM IST), you will be able to see the planetary parade in action up there. To help you keep track of the skies, you can use apps like Star Tracker

(Free, Android and iOS).