Of the other eight (or seven) planets in our solar system, five are visible to the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. This month ALL five are visible in the evening sky, though not quite all at once.
Shortly after sunset (45-90 minutes) Mercury is visible on the western horizon, just above or in the sun’s afterglow. It sets fairly soon thereafter.
Higher in the western sky are Venus and Jupiter. They are up all evening, eventually setting after midnight. As a matter of fact, they are in extremely close conjunction, with the closest approach being tonight, Thursday, March 15. They are about 2-3 moon diameters apart and the brightest objects in the night sky hands down. Venus is the larger, brighter one on the right and Jupiter on the left. During the close conjunction they should be on a nearly horizontal line with each other.
