THE skies are offering a rare treat for skywatchers over the next few weeks, a chance to see five planets aligned across the sky with your naked eye from Fiji.
This is the first time the five planets — Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter — will all be visible about 45 minutes before sunrise until February 20.
Confirming this, University of the South Pacific’s physics technician Neil Singh said the best time for the historic celestial planetary transit to be seen from the country was between 4.30am to 5am.
“A rare planetary alignment will be in progress for the period of January 20 to February 20, 2016,” Mr Singh said
“The planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter are usually visible to the naked eye without the need of an astronomical telescope. These five planets will be visible simultaneously to the naked-eye for the first time in more than 10 years,” he said.
“The best viewing time for star watchers is 45 minutes before sunrise (dawn). Astronomers advise that the planet Mercury will dim towards the end of the viewable period.”
He said the celestial event was made possible by the unusual alignment of the five planets along the ecliptic plane of their orbits, close to the plane of Earth’s orbit, thereby projecting as a line.
He said the next of such event would take place from August 13-19 this year, which could possibly be the last until the next 10 years.
“During this period (August), the event will take place around sunset (dusk), and star watchers in the southern hemisphere will be best placed to witness it.
“All in all, the southern hemisphere, where Fiji is located has a big advantage as both planetary alignments this year will be seen.”
He said if you’re watching from Earth, Mercury would be closest to the Sun, pinkish in colour followed by Venus (bright white), Mars (range-red), Jupiter (bright white) and Saturn (pale yellow).
