By Michelle Rotuno-Johnson, Patch Staff
NEW JERSEY — Grab a pair of binoculars and make it a point to be outside around sunset Monday and for a few days after. With a favorable weather forecast in New Jersey, we’ll see a rare celestial parade of five planets, a crescent moon, and a star cluster in the western sky.
The alignment — led by the star cluster Messier 35 from the left, followed by Mars, the moon, Uranus, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars — starts about 20 minutes after sunset. Monday and Tuesday are the best nights to see it.
Sunset is about 7:15 p.m. Monday and 7:16 p.m. Tuesday in the far eastern NJ towns, and 7:18 and 7:19 p.m. closer to Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Right now, the forecast is “tricky” in New Jersey in terms of cloud cover or rain on Monday and Tuesday nights, according to the National Weather Service in Mount Holly. A series of storms could move through the region both Monday and Tuesday night, and AccuWeather is watching a “potential Northeast snowstorm” next week.
Timing is everything. Venus doesn’t set until about 10:15 p.m. local time, but the views of Jupiter and Mercury are fleeting. “It will be important to catch them as soon as possible before they disappear over the western horizon,” the Farmers’ Almanac wrote, adding the plants appear “to chase after the Sun.”
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