Brightest planets line up in Earthlings’ sight

The Associated Press The five brightest planets visible from Earth will line up until May 15.

By Peijean Tsai

Daily Bruin Contributor

On a clear day you can see forever. As long as the sky stays clear over the next two weeks, astronomy lovers will witness a cosmic opportunity that will not reoccur until 2040.

Until May 15 sky watchers will find the five visible planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter – clustered together within 35 degrees of each other in the Western sky as they make their orbits around the sun.

The rare sight will be visible above the horizon just after sunset and can be viewed with the naked eye.

“We’ll all be dead and in the grave before the planets line up like this again,” said Jay Farihi, a UCLA graduate student studying physics and astronomy.

Students and visitors to the UCLA campus have been able to get a closer look at the alignment with the help of telescopes atop the Math Sciences Building.

The ninth floor houses five telescopes, each 24 inches in diameter, that are used by members of the UCLA Undergraduate Astronomy Society.

The UAS also hosts weekly planetarium shows on Wednesdays, extending viewing opportunities to community members of all ages, said Matthew Barczys, a UCLA graduate student who helps organize UAS events.

Cloudy weather on Wednesday, however, prevented sky watchers from seeing the alignment.

“The weather couldn’t get worse than this,” said Farihi, expressing disappointment. “Hopefully next Wednesday will be better.”

For Greg Walth, the UAS vice president and a third-year physics student, looking at alignments captures both the entertaining and educational aspects of astronomy.

“You look and you learn, and then you want to learn more,” Walth said.

While some people fear that planetary alignments could have dangerous effects in the universe, this planetary gathering has no astronomical significance, said Margaret Kivelson, a UCLA professor of earth and space sciences.

“It’s just an interesting coincidence, just a very pretty sight in the sky,” said Kivelson.

This particular alignment is not too special for Barczys, who has seen similar arrangements before. He looks forward, however, to May 13 when all five visible planets and the moon can be seen after sunset.

The same five planets grouped together in May 2000, but the alignment was difficult to observe because of the position of the sun which bleached out the sky, according to the Cranbrook Institute of Science.