    Five planets – Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars – appear lined up near the moon this week with tonight the closest alignment.
NASA astronomer Bill Cooke says to look to the western horizon right after sunset because Mercury and Jupiter will dip below the horizon around half an hour later.
Before that, though, you can see all 5 planets stretched from the horizon line to around halfway up the night sky.
Cooke says binoculars may help because while Jupiter, Venus and Mars shine brightly, Mercury and Uranus are much dimmer. He adds that it’s a rare chance to spot Uranus, which will be a green glow just above Venus.
Planetary alignments occur when their orbits line them up on one side of the sun from Earth’s perspective. There was a 5-planet alignment last summer and another this June, but with a slightly different makeup of planets.