It might be a good time to break out your binoculars, or find a friend with a telescope, because there is an opportunity to see five planets Tuesday night between the western horizon and the moon, which will be almost directly overhead when the planets become visible.
If you know where to look, you could see Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars. You’ll probably need binoculars or a telescope to make out Mercury and Uranus. The place to look for Jupiter and Mercury will be low in the western sky near the horizon shortly after sunset. Jupiter will be the brighter of the two.
“On the 28th at 7:30 p.m., Jupiter is the lowest,” said Ron Hranac, past president of the Denver Astronomical Society. “Mercury is above and slightly to the right of it. Venus will be roughly a third of the way up from the horizon. Next is Uranus, just to the upper left of Venus.”
Mars will appear just below the moon. Depending on the vantage point, it may not be dark enough to see Mars and Uranus until after Jupiter and Mercury disappear behind the mountains. Astronomy buffs warn that Jupiter and Mercury may be very difficult to see from Denver because they will be so low in the sky.
“I think people are going to have a rough time spotting Jupiter and Mercury because they are so low in the west,” said Hranac, adding that they may be more noticeable around 8 p.m. They will be close to setting then, though.
Jeff Hunt, a retired Illinois planetarium director whose website When the Curves Line Up tracks interesting celestial events for amateur sky gazers, also tempers expectations about Jupiter and Mercury because of the mountains and other urban obstructions.
“In Denver, seeing Mercury and Jupiter is going to be a real challenge,” Hunt said. “Mercury and Jupiter are pretty low in the sky. My enthusiasm is a little muted because of the prospects of getting a clear horizon, not obstructed. Somebody out east in Morgan County, they’re likely to pick it out pretty easily. It’s challenging for those who have obstructions.”
Venus will be easy to pick out because it will be the brightest celestial object in the sky, except for the moon. It will be roughly a third of the way from the western horizon. Uranus will appear to the upper left of Venus and may appear to have a blue-green tint. Mars will appear to the lower left of the moon and will have an orange tint.
