All five of the the visible planets are holding an assembly tonight and through the coming week. Add Earth and you’ve got six planets. The planets Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Mars and Saturn are in our early night sky. Many of them will be visible into the evening, but the best part of the show is a short time after sunset.

All but Mercury have been visible now for most of the month. Mercury has arrived for a quick visit and can be visible for only a few nights ahead.

Look in the western sky about an hour after sunset for the two bright planets Venus and Jupiter. Venus is by far the brightest of the two.

Mercury is a fainter planet and appears tonight right under Jupiter, a couple of degrees below. Mercury is low and to the left of the bright Venus. The three form an odd triangle. Mercury’s position in the sky is fleeting. Watch the planet in the nights ahead as it begins to descend back into the glare of the sun.

Pay attention to Venus and Jupiter. The two are going to give a dramatic show, a conjunction, at the end of the month. Though their distances from the Earth are staggeringly different, both will appear less than one degree apart in the last nights of August.

Mars and Saturn are far easier to spot in the southwestern sky and later into the evening. These two planets are in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius, the southernmost of the zodiac constellations. They are to the observer’s left, more southerly.

You can almost draw a straight line from Saturn, above through the reddish Mars below to the star Antares underneath. Just below Mars is the red star Antares, the principle star in the constellation.