Planetary alignment should be visible Monday and Tuesday night

Rare line-up and forecast for clear skies make for good viewing

By Will Collette

The weather forecast for Monday calls for clear and sunny during the daytime and a nice clear night. Tuesday’s forecast is almost as good.

That’s nice timing because there’s a rare planetary alignment going on for the next few days visible over Charlestown just after sunset.

The planets Jupiter, Venus and Mercury will be bunched up a few degrees over the northwestern horizon at dusk, about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset.

CAUTION: do not try to find these planets while the sun is still in the sky. You won't find them, and you could also hurt your eyes.

As we get closer to the official start of summer, sunsets are now at around 8:10 PM, so you should be able to see the three planets together between 8:30 and 9:00 PM.

You shouldn’t need binoculars, though it wouldn’t hurt to have them to look closer at Jupiter and perhaps spot its four largest moons.