A parade of planets will happen Monday morning… but will Woodlanders be able to enjoy it?

The good news is, this Monday, June 3, six planets will line up in a celestial event that is a wonder to behold. The bad news is, here in The Woodlands area we won’t be getting that great of a view.

Unfortunately, the odds and celestial gods are against us in the predawn hours of this upcoming Monday when Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will be aligned in the sky. Of the six planets, only Mars and Saturn will be able to be espied with the naked eye by local residents. Mercury and Jupiter will alas be too low on the Lone Star horizon at the alignment that will be in full swing just before dawn, around 5 o’clock in the morning.

Additionally, the Woodlands Online Weather Team has predicted that Sunday night and Monday morning will be filled with both heavy clouds and rain as we will find ourselves in the middle of a weeklong thunderstormy session.

That being said, we encourage Woodlands residents and visitors to wake up early just in case and grab some binoculars or a telescope to make the most of it. In fact, send us your photos and videos for us to post on our social media.

While spectacular, much like solar eclipses, it’s not as rare as one would think for there to be such an alignment. In fact, in August and next January there will be more instances of six planets lining up, and in February seven planets will do the honors. It is, however, slightly more rare for all eight planets – sorry, Pluto – to align. Specifically, from the viewpoint of Earth it will never happen. A completely solar system wise alignment takes place once every 396 billion years. It hasn’t happened for us yet, and astronomers predict that our sun will become a white dwarf, wiping out our planet and a few others to boot, in a mere six billion years.

So, take what alignments you can, while you still have time

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