June will have a few special events that you can add to your to-do list this summer that will require you to just look up to the sky to make them happen. For most of June, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will lie in the sky like a lined string of pearls that appear at dawn before sunrise.
Sky & Telescope Magazine calls it the “planet parade” because the planets will also be in the correct order from the sun.
Mercury is the hardest part to spot, as the last planet to join the series just before being swallowed up by sunlight. However, we will be able to see Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn easily during the whole month.
As a quad, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have already appeared together in the past few months, but June will be the last chance to see the group together before they begin to spread further across the night sky. You will be able to find planets in the sky by looking southeast before sunrise.
This celestial event requires no special equipment, but you can see even better if you have access to a telescope or a local observatory. Even a pair of binoculars can help improve your experience.
If you want to know which planet is which, remember that they are arranged in their natural order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. A sky tracking app like Stellarium can also help you identify all the planets.
In early June, Mercury and Saturn will be the group’s smallest lights in the sky. As the moon continues, the planets will begin to appear more separate from each other in the sky.
By mid-June Mercury will be brighter and higher on the horizon, making it easier to spot.
Towards the end of the month, the five planetary alignments will add a sixth light to the spectacle. On June 24, Mercury will rise above the horizon about an hour before sunrise. As a bonus, a crescent will appear between Venus and Mars.
Venus and Saturn will stand out as morning objects for most observers by September, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says.
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