Planets Visible Tonight

Throughout the nighttime hours of early July, a number of planets are visible in the sky.  Shortly after sunset tonight, you should be able to view Jupiter, Mars & Saturn.  During the early morning hours before dawn, Venus is visible.  The following is a snippet taken from EarthSky’s piece July 2014 Guide To The Five Visible Planets:

Jupiter, Mars and Saturn all pop into view as soon as darkness falls in early July 2014. It’s not likely that you’ll mistake one planet for another. The three are in different parts of the sky and exhibit different brightnesses and colors. Jupiter, the brightest starlike object in the evening sky, sits low in the west at dusk and sets shortly after the sun. Jupiter disappears in the glare of sunset by the second week of July, while Mars and Saturn remain fixtures of the July evening sky all month long. As darkness falls on these July evenings, look for ruddy Mars in the southwestern sky, and for golden Saturn in the south to southwest. It’s easy to distinguish ruddy Mars from golden Saturn by color.

For more information regarding the viewing of the planets, including graphics that show you where to look for them in the sky, visit EarthSky.org.