Dance Of The Planets May 2013 Begins Today — Lasts From May 24 Through May 30

Update: A couple readers have dropped pictures in the comments. Have a look! πŸ˜€

The Dance of the Planets will be beginning tonight, and will put on a show until around May 30 — Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury will all appear to be “dancing” with each other in the dusk/sunset sky .

Dance of the planets May 26 2013

The β€œdance of the planets” is the event where Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury (or other planets), all appear to be very close together in the sky and exchange positions with other over a short period of time. In reality of course planets are nowhere near each other. The show is expected to be pretty good, so I recommend that you make the time if you can.

Also, make sure to check out the year’s other astronomical events, see: Astronomy 2013, Comet ISON, Meteor Showers, Eclipses, Supermoon, etc


The best days to see the “dance” will be from May 24 – 30 2013, when all three planets will be within only a couple of degrees of each other, in the dusk sky. The best time to watch will be at around 45 minutes after sunset, anytime around then is good though. You’ll be wanting to look low on the west-northwestern horizon. That area of the sky will contain at least a couple of bright β€˜stars’ β€” one of which will be Jupiter, one Venus, one Mercury, along with a couple of other true stars. The pictures on this page should help to give you some idea.

Dance of the planets

Something to note, in some regions/sky conditions you may need binoculars in order to make out all three of the planets. It’s a good show regardless though, even with ‘just’ the naked eye. And since the plants will be rather low on the horizon, it’s best to find a very flat/high place to watch from ,such as a coast or a tall building/hill.

Enjoy. πŸ™‚

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