Planetary Trifecta: Triple Conjunction of Saturn, Mercury and Jupiter

Last month, Jupiter and Saturn aligned to form the "great conjunction" for the first time in almost 800 years.

According to EarthSky, the "spectacularly-close threesome" will be on showcase at dusk.

Jupiter - the brightest planet - will be visible first, followed by Mercury and finally, by Saturn - the dimmest planet.

As you may recall from seeing a news story about it every single day for three months, on December 21, 2020, we were treated to a once-in-800-years "Great Conjunction," aka the "Christmas Star" aka the "Planets' Kiss".

To understand degrees in the sky: The horizon is at zero degrees, and directly overhead is 90 degrees.

"A grouping of three planets in a circle whose diameter spans 5 degrees or less is known as a planetary trio".

Space.com also adds that this may be the last chance to catch Jupiter and Saturn in the evening sky for a while, as the planets continues to "descend farther and farther into the blazing sunset". Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury appear to crowd in tightly all at once. you'll see it low in the southwestern sky about 30 to 45 minutes after sundown.

Binoculars will come in handy in order to see this celestial event best, and keep your fingers crossed for clear skies.

Of course, while the three planets look like they're nudging up close to each other, they're still not exactly within spitting distance.

"It was a spectacular sight as both planets [Jupiter and Saturn] appeared in the same field of view of telescopes and binoculars, but in reality it was little more than a line-of-sight trick of perspective, since the two planets remained about 456 million of miles apart", wrote Jamie Carter of Forbes, referencing last month's great conjunction.