十年罕见的天体秀 五大行星同时现身

Five planets will parade across the dawn sky early Wednesday in a rare celestial spectacle set to repeat every morning until late next month.

周三凌晨，五颗行星将列队穿过黎明时分的天空。这一罕见天象可能每天都会出现，直到下月底。

Headlining the planetary performance are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. It will be the first time in more than a decade that the fab five will be simultaneously visible to the naked eye, according to Jason Kendall, who is on the board of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York.

这场行星表演的主角分别是水星、金星、火星、土星和木星。据纽约业余天文爱好者协会(Amateur Astronomers Association of New York)委员贾森·肯德尔(Jason Kendall)称，这将是十多年来，人们首次能用肉眼同时看到五颗行星。

Admission is free, though stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere should plan to get up about 45 minutes before sunrise to catch the show. City dwellers can stay in their neighborhoods to watch, as long as they point their attention to the east, according to Mr. Kendall.

演出是免费的，但为了能赶上观赏这一奇景，北半球的天文爱好者应该在日出前大约45分钟起床。肯德尔表示，城市居民可以留在自己所在的社区观看，只要把注意力集中在东方就行了。

“For Mercury you will need binoculars,” he said. “It will not jump out at you, but everybody should be able to see Venus and Jupiter.”

“观看水星的时候需要用双筒望远镜，”他说。“水星不会跳到你面前，但所有人应该都能看到金星和木星。”

Mr. Kendall said that the hardest task for viewers will be discerning the planets from stars twinkling in the sky. But he offers a simple trick: close one eye, stretch out your arm and slowly pass your thumb over a bright dot in the sky. If the dot slowly dims out when your thumb passes over it, it’s a planet. If it quickly blinks out, it’s a distant star.

肯德尔表示，观看者最难的是分辨出闪烁的恒星和那些行星。不过他给出了一个简单的诀窍：闭上一只眼睛，伸出一条胳膊，让大拇指瞄准空中的一个亮点慢慢移动。拇指经过时，亮点如果慢慢变暗便是行星，如果转瞬消失便是远方的恒星。

The show is expected to run from Jan. 20 until Feb. 20, but the peak time to see all five is from the end of January until the first week of February, when Mercury is at its highest points, according to Sky & Telescope. The display is made possible by the uncommon alignment of all five planets along what is called the “ecliptic” plane of their orbits according to Jim Green, the planetary science division director at NASA.

表演预计将从1月20日持续到2月20日，但同时看到五颗行星的最佳时间是从1月末到2月的第一周。据《天空和望远镜》(Sky & Telescope)杂志称，这期间水星处于最高点。NASA行星科学部门负责人吉姆·格林(Jim Green)称，这一现象之所以成为可能，是因为五颗行星罕见地沿其轨道的“黄道”面排列成了一条线。

Each planet will appear in the sky one by one, starting Tuesday evening with Jupiter around 9:20 p.m. in New York. Mars will follow the gas giant’s solo debut, appearing as a reddish dot at approximately 1:11 a.m. E.S.T. Wednesday. Saturn enters next around 4:00 a.m., followed by Venus — the brightest orb — nearly an hour later. Mercury will join the ensemble last, taking the stage at around 6:17 a.m. It will last until the sun rises, at about 7:15 a.m. on Wednesday in New York, and makes it too bright to see the planets. The display will appear in the sky at similar times across the East Coast and before dawn across the northern Hemisphere.

从周二晚上开始，几大行星将一个接一个地出现在纽约的上空。木星将在晚上9点20分左右，最先单独出现在空中。继木星这颗气态巨行星之后，火星将在东部夏令时间周三凌晨1点11分左右出现。人们看到的火星将是一个略带红色的圆点。接下来，土星将在凌晨4点左右上场。再过近一个小时后，最亮的星球金星将登场。最后加入的水星将在早上6点17分左右上台。这一景象将持续到日出，即纽约的周三早上7点15分左右。太阳升起后，因为光线太亮，人们便看不到这些行星了。此情此景将在差不多的时间出现在整个东海岸上空，并在黎明前出现在整个北半球的上空。

“It’s not super often you get to see them all at the same time in the sky, it’s like seeing all of your friends at once,” said Jackie Faherty, an astronomer from the American Museum of Natural History. “There they are, the other rocks or balls of gas that are running around the sun.”

“同时在空中看到这五颗行星的机会不是特别常见，就像同时见到所有的朋友，”美国自然历史博物馆(American Museum of Natural History)的天文学专家杰基·法赫蒂(Jackie Faherty)说。“现在他们来了——其他那些围绕着太阳旋转的岩石或气团。”

Those who miss the planetary alignment this time around will have another opportunity from Aug. 13 to 19, when the cosmic motley crew gives an encore performance, according to . That show will take place in the dusk sky, giving stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere the best vantage points.

错过这一次行星排成一线景象的人，在8月13日到19日期间还有机会。据称，在那期间，这些天体会再次奉上同样的演出。届时，舞台将是黄昏时分的天空，南半球的天文爱好者将享有最佳视角。