"The Early Bird not only Gets the Worm, but also 4 Pre-Dawn Planets Lined Up in a Row"

Scheduled air date: 2002 Oct 07-13

For the next couple of weeks, the planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn can all be seen in the pre-dawn sky...
(Shown about 60 minutes before sunrise for mid-Northern latitudes.)

...the planets appear in a line because, like all planets in our Solar System except most-distant Pluto, their orbits are in approximately the same plane.
(Solar System view from beyond Pluto's orbit showing the planets in their current relative positions.)

If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.

Illustrations on this page were created using TheSky Astronomy Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows. Copyright © 1999-2006 by Software Bisque, Inc.