Mercury, Venus and Saturn to delight stargazers in a parade across the sky

Mercury, Venus and Saturn will be visible in the predawn Friday morning sky. NASA/JPL-Caltech/NASA hide caption

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NASA/JPL-Caltech/NASA

Alongside a crescent moon, Mercury, Venus and Saturn will become visible to stargazers just before dawn on Friday morning.

According to NASA, the planetary phenomenon will be clearest about 45 minutes before sunrise, low in the eastern sky and appearing near the moon. Venus and Saturn will be the easiest to spot — but for those with a clear view of the horizon, Mercury can be observed hanging low and bright in the cosmos.

This planet parade — when planets align in the sky and become clearly visible to the naked eye — is one of a handful to occur this year.

In February, stargazers enjoyed a rare occurrence: All seven of Earth's planetary siblings dotted the night sky at once.

And later this year in August, four planets — Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn — will become visible.

The phenomenon accompanies other April treats for astrophiles. This week, the Lyrid meteor shower has taken over the night sky, casting shooting stars and fireballs darting overhead.

And NASA says that Messier 3 — a sprawling expanse of dazzling stars some 34,000 light-years from Earth — is also visible this month. For those looking to observe the ancient globular cluster, which NASA estimates is between 11 and 13 billion years old, the agency says to look "a third of the way from Arcturus to Cor Caroli," two notably bright stars.

"Through binoculars, Messier 3, or M3, appears as a small, fuzzy, star-like patch of light," the agency says on its website. "With a small telescope, you'll see a more defined glow with a slightly grainy texture. And with telescopes 8 inches or larger, the cluster begins to resolve into hundreds of individual stars."