Five Planets, A Comet, And A Meteor Shower Will Be Visible This Week

This is almost an overload of celestial excitement!

I always love looking to the sky and checking out stars and constellations and planets and eclipses and whatever else is up there.

This week is going to be huge for fans of astronomy like me because we will be able to see five planets, a once-in-a-lifetime comet, and a meteor shower!

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are the five planets that will be visible. Forbes has some tips for viewing:

• Mercury rising in the northeast about 45 minutes before sunrise (look for a small, red dot)
• Venus shining in the east (very bright and very easy to see)
• Jupiter will be sinking in the western sky
• Saturn will be just above Jupiter in the western sky
• Mars will be much higher above the southwestern horizon

I've downloaded a few different star map apps, but the one that I found easiest to work with is SkyView Lite - you get it through Apple or Google. It's a great option to identify whatever it is that you're looking at.

Finally, it's time for the Delta Aquariid meteor shower! This shower actually began on July 12th and will run through August 23rd, and will hit peak activity in the early morning of July 29th. The peak will feature about twenty meteors per hour, with meteors fanning out to the east, north, and west.