Spectacular Planet Show Promised

The five planets visible to the naked eye will line up in the sky at the end of April.
Astronomers say the rare grouping of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn may not be seen again for a century.

This demonstrates perfectly how the planets - Greek for 'wandering stars' - baffled ancient astronomers

A similar arrangement of planets happened two years ago but was not visible from Earth because of the position of the Sun.

It was accompanied by scare stories that our planet could be pulled off its path or struck by extraordinary tides.

The Earth, of course, survived and astronomers say this year's planetary show is no cause for concern.

Robert Warren of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, UK, said the best time to view them would be about half an hour after sunset in an area away from lights where there is a clear horizon.

He told BBC News Online: "Looking west, note where the sun sets (just past due west) and take a line up and left.

"About 11 O'clock - if the sky were a clock - you will see the planets in order of distance from the Sun.

Choose a place away from lights with a clear view Look west in the sky just after sunset Look at the 11'O'clock position and you should see the planets together in the same patch of sky "Mercury, being very close to the Sun, will be just a few degrees off the horizon and quite faint and Jupiter will be about 60 degrees so you'll have to look up quite high.

"Over the few hours after sunset you'll be able to see all the planets follow the Sun below the horizon in an almost exact straight line."

Over the next two or three weeks, the planets will move closer together and become more bunched.

By 4 May, Saturn will be "overtaking" Mars to form a triangular pattern with Venus.

The Moon will often be in the same part of the sky as the planets, appearing to jump about between them from night to night.

Dr Warren added: "Since so many astronomical events come and go very quickly this one is interesting because it gives us something to view over quite a sustained period.

"This demonstrates perfectly how the planets - Greek for 'wandering stars' - baffled ancient astronomers who could not understand why they moved differently to everything else in the night sky and how they could overtake one another."

The array of five planets will provide a planet watching opportunity that will not be repeated for 100 years.

Similar groupings will occur in September 2040 and July 2060 but the planets will not be as close together or as visible to the naked eye.

The cluster follows another rare astronomical treat. The brightest comet for nearly 8 years has been visible in the western sky after sunset for the last few weeks.

The wandering comet, called Ikeya-Zhang after its Japanese and Chinese co-discoverers, re-appeared in the inner Solar System only a few weeks ago.

From:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/reu/20020401/planets.html

See Five Planets Together in April, May
April 3 — The five so-called naked eye planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — will appear to clump together later this month in a sight that might not be seen again for a century.
But don't call this a planetary alignment. And even though this is fairly rare, there is nothing for earthlings to worry about, astronomer Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory said on Tuesday.
The grouping of the five will begin to be visible with unaided eyes around April 20, with the planets clustered closest by around May 4, Chester said by telephone. "It is an opportunity to see all five of the naked eye planets in the same part of the sky at the same time and that does not happen very often," Chester said.
It could be 50 or 100 years before this happens again, he said.
The display should be easy to see in most parts of the inhabited world, weather permitting, though those at extreme northern and southern latitudes may need binoculars or a small telescope, and Mercury could still be hard to spot, he said.
A similar grouping of the same five planets, plus the moon, occurred on May 5, 2000, accompanied by dire predictions of extraordinary tides and other cataclysms. Earth survived. However, that cluster occurred on the opposite side of the sun from Earth, and the sun's light was so bright the planets could not be seen from Earth.
This time, most humans should have a good view, Chester said. What they should be able to see will be Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn all grouped within the span of 10 degrees of the sky, or about the width of a fist held at arm's length. Jupiter will be a bit higher in the sky, about three fist-widths away, but still quite close.
The cluster will start to dissipate around May 12, Chester said, when Mercury will dip closer to the horizon and become less visible.
This grouping is only the planets people can see without help, and does not count as an alignment, according to Chester, though others have used that term.
Chester considers a true alignment to be when all the planets are on the same side of the sun, and grouped within about 90 degrees — nine fist-widths — of each other, or closer. This occurs once in several hundred years.
The closest known planetary alignment in the last two millennia occurred on April 11, 1128, before most planets were identified as such, including Earth, according to Chester.

From: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/planets-align-00a.html

Chart by Sky & Telescope - Copyright 2000 Sky Publishing Corp
When Planets Align Nothing Happens

by Sky & Telescope
Washington - April 3, 2000 -

An eye-catching group of three planets shines in the western sky at dusk during the first half of April. Anyone with an open view toward the west can watch Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn work through a slow dance of changing configurations from one evening to the next.
The brightest of the three is Jupiter, shining with a steady light. Look low in the west about an hour after sunset; you can't miss it.
To Jupiter's upper left is Saturn, less bright. Tiny Mars is quite a bit fainter. You may have to wait until twilight grows fairly dark before Mars comes into view with its unmistakable orange tinge.
For the first four days of April, Mars glimmers just to Jupiter's lower right (as seen from North America). Mars and Jupiter appear closest -- separated by less than a finger's width seen at arm's length -- on April 5th and 6th, with Mars appearing to Jupiter's right. On the 6th the crescent Moon shines close to the planets to create an especially lovely twilight sky scene.
The Moon will be shining farther to the planets' upper left by the evening of Astronomy Day, April 8th, when many amateur-astronomy clubs will set up telescopes to show off the sky to the public. By then Mars will have crept above Jupiter. The red planet passes close by Saturn a week later, on April 15th.
After that, all three planets will become harder to see as they descend lower into the west. They are on their way to an even bigger gathering of planets in early May, when Mercury and Venus will join them in the same general area of the sky. Unfortunately this grand grouping will be hidden from view in the glare of the Sun.
The planet alignment in early May has prompted some people (as well as dealers in survivalist gear with unsold inventory left over from the Y2K scare) to predict that on May 5th tidal waves will wash away coastal cities, California will fall into the Pacific, earthquakes of unheard-of intensity will shake the Earth's crust like a carpet, and/or the Earth's poles will turn topsy-turvy.
Here's a hot news tip from SKY & TELESCOPE: it won't happen!
In 1997 SKY & TELESCOPE published an article about this planetary alignment, how all the fuss began, and how this grouping compares with others. Written by Jean Meeus, the Belgian astronomer who first noticed the alignment nearly 40 years ago.
To the question "How rarely does such an alignment happen?" there is no very meaningful answer. Like snowflakes, no two planet groupings are exactly alike. So this one has never happened before and never will again. But like snowflakes in a snowstorm, planet alignments of one sort or another come and go pretty much all the time.
If the question is posed as "When did most of the planets, plus the Moon and Sun, last gather in the same general area of the sky?", the answer is in December 1997 and again in January 1998. So, contrary to some claims, this is not an especially rare type of event.
For some fascinating stories of how planet conjunctions (pairings and groupings) really have changed history -- through superstition on the part of people from Genghis Kahn to Rudolf Hess -- see Bradley Schaefer's cover story in the May 2000 issue of SKY & TELESCOPE. In the same issue you'll also find an explanation by Donald Olson and Thomas Lytle of why tidal forces from the planets will not wreak havoc on May 5th.

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