ROANOKE, Va. – Remember in elementary school when you had to name all the planets?
Your teacher might have taught you the mnemonic device “My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas.”
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This, as we came to learn, was to help us remember Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
For the purposes of this article (and our pre-dawn sky the next few days), you’ll only need to remember five of the eight (formerly nine) planets.
In a rare display, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will appear in a line about 45 minutes to an hour before sunrise.
This alignment has happened for much of June. The peak to view this spectacle in space is Friday, June 24. Clouds likely get in the way, but there will be several more opportunities to view before the month comes to a close.
Mercury will be lowest and, therefore, the toughest to see. Next comes Venus, which is often the brightest planet in the sky. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will finish the line from left to right.
If you get any good pictures of the starry quintet, send them to us by clicking here.