Stars line up for great viewing

When the sky clears, you’re in for a heavenly sight. U-N-I astronomy professor Siobhan Wagner explains the five other planets we can see without telescopes are all lined up in the evening sky.The best time will be 8:45 to 9:30 at night but you’ll have to be quick so Mercury doesn’t set before you can see it. Wagner says it wouldn’t look so special from space, because they only line up from an earth point of view. Every two or three years you can see several planets on one evening, but they’re all over the sky. Dr. Wagner says this lineup is not only close together in the western sky, it will get better as the next few days go by. Mars, Saturn and Venus will get a lot closer and by May 6th they’ll be in a triangle type arrangement. And after it gets darker, you could watch for Northern Lights. A couple alerts have gone out this month for sightings of the Aurora Borealis.There was a peak last year and one this year for sunspots, and there will be fewer strong solar events in the future. However, it’s the peak of an eleven-year cycle, and the astronomer admits there may be clear summer nights good for viewing the Northern Lights.