NBC 6 Meteorologist Adam Berg explains how us Floridians can catch a glimpse of Mars, Uranus, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury in the night sky this weekend.
If you love all things astronomy, you'll most certainly want to pay close attention to Florida's night sky next week.
For one night, on Tuesday, March 28, five planets - Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars - will gather within a 50-degree sky sector - in what will be a rare astronomical phenomenon, according to the website Starwalk.
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Here's how you can best see them:
What is the best time to see the planets?
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For anyone interested in the stellar astronomic event, you're encouraged to start your observations shortly after sunset.
Two bright planets - Jupiter and Mercury - will be visible near the horizon, in the constellation Pisces. They won't be as easy to see as Venus, the brightest of all five planets.
It will brightly shine with a magnitude of -4.0 in the constellation Aries, according to the website.
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Uranus, which likely won't be too far from Venus, will probably be the hardest to locate. You might even need a pair of binoculars to catch a glimpse of it. The fifth and final planet, Mars, will be higher in the sky, near the first quarter Moon in the constellation Gemini.
What day will the planets be seen most clearly?
March 28 will undoubtedly be the best day to see the planets in alignment, though they will be visible together in the days prior and those following.
When was the last time this phenomenon occurred?
While planetary alignments themselves are rare, it has been less than a year since five other planets simultaneously dazzled stargazers.
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were visible to most of the world in late June 2022. Even more recently, an alignment of two planets - Venus and Jupiter - occurred in recent weeks.
