Planets Jupiter, Mercury and Mars are visible to the naked eye up to December 14. These planets in conjunction can be seen early Sunday morning, 40 minutes before sunrise. This is the closest these planets will be until the year 2053.
Naked-eye viewing is fine, but binoculars or a telescope are even better. A telescope is not reccomended, because they will appear to be so close to the Sun that you risk gazing at it through the telescope and damage your eyesight.
Jupiter shines more brilliantly than any star. With the exception of the Sun, Moon and Venus, Jupiter is the brightest celestial body in the heavens. If you spot only one point of light by Jupiter, that’s probably Mercury. It’s considerably brighter than fainter Mars.
About 45 minutes before dawn on Sunday those three planets will be so close that the average person’s thumb can obscure all three from view. They will be almost as close together on Saturday and Monday, but Sunday they will be within one degree of each other in the sky. Three planets haven’t been that close since 1925, said Miami Space Transit Planetarium director Jack Horkheimer quoted by AP.
“Jupiter will be very bright and it will look like it has two bright lights next to it, and they won’t twinkle because they’re planets,” said Horkheimer, host of the television show “Star Gazer. “This is the kind of an event that turns young children into Carl Sagans.”
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