Planet Triple Play: Saturn, Mars and Venus Appear Together

If you live in the northern hemisphere, go out any night this week an hour or so after sunset and look at the western sky to catch a planetary triple play starring Venus, Saturn and Mars.

Full Article on Space.com

The first thing skywatchers will see — weather permitting — is the brilliant planet Venus, slightly north of west, in the constellation Gemini. Look for Gemini's twin first magnitude stars, Pollux and Castor, just above Venus.

As the sky gets darker, the planet Mars can be spotted to Venus' left as it appears in the constellation Leo very close to the bright, first magnitude star Regulus. Further still to the left will be Saturn shining in the western part of the constellation Virgo.

This sky map shows how to spot all three planets as they appear across a 71-degree angle in the night sky. For comparison, your closed fist held at arm's length covers about 5 degrees of arc in the sky.

Venus, Mars and Saturn are all currently appearing slightly north of the ecliptic, the path the sun appears to follow over the year, shown in green in the sky map.

Figured I'd post this for all the amateur astronomers on ATS I know I'll be looking, even if it is with Stellarium

[edit on 6/4/2010 by UberL33t]

Pretty sweet. The second phase of the transit of Venus happens on June 6, 2012. So the 5th and 6h of this year should definitely be worth watching!!!