With Mercury moving into the evening sky, all 5 unaided-eye planets are now visible within 60 degrees of each other along the ecliptic in evening twilight. Look about 35 to 45 minutes after sunset (7:35 to 7:45 p.m. MST). Mercury is still quite difficult -- only a degree or two above the WNW horizon -- but will be rapidly climbing higher during the next 2 weeks. Presently the crescent moon is also among the planets, as it will be again May 13-15. Last night (April 16) the line-up looked like this, from lowest to highest: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn (moon just above Saturn), Jupiter. Tonight (April 17) the moon will be between Saturn and Jupiter, and tomorrow (April 18) the moon will be just to the upper right of Jupiter. All 5 planets will remain visible until mid-May in shifting configurations, with Venus, Mars and Saturn being especially close to each other the first week of May. I believe this is the last time for about 40 years that all five unaided-eye planets will be in the same part of the sky, so go take a look! --Joe Orman Joe Orman's Photo Pages: http://pages.prodigy.net/pam.orman/JoeGallery.html -- This message is from the AZ-Observing mailing list. See this message's header if you want info about unsubscribing or the list's archive. This is a discussion list. Please send personal inquiries directly to the message author. In other words, do not use "reply" for personal messages. Thanks.