“Mars and Saturn Almost Slam Into Each Other this Weekend!”

Scheduled air date: 2006 Jun 12-18

Three planets can be seen above the western horizon shortly after sunset each night this week. Tiny planet Mercury is making one of its brief appearances, while the red planet Mars and ringed planet Saturn are making a visual convergence that brings them a mere one-half degree apart on June 17th.
(Shown about an hour after sunset on June 11-17 for mid-northern latitudes.)

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

Illustrations on this page were created using TheSky6 Astronomy Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows. Copyright © 1999-2006 by Software Bisque, Inc.