In Roman mythology, the planets Venus and Mars were Jupiter’s children.
Well, this week the three of them are having something of a family reunion.
Their orbits have come so close together they could be part of the same constellation, something that won’t happen again until 2021.
This morning they joined in a triangle – but if you missed that, don’t worry as they will remain visible for the next week.
In fact early mornings throughout October are an exciting time to stargaze in general as Venus, Jupiter, Mars and even Mercury will be close to one another in different configurations.
This is really rare because the planets’ orbits don’t normally line up because of their different speeds – Venus takes just 225 days to orbit the sun, Mars takes 686 days and Jupiter takes 12 years.
The next best time to see them come together will be early morning on October 28 when the three larger planets will unite in a beautiful curve, with Mercury also visible low down on the horizon, as you can see in the above picture from Beckstrom Observatory.
So where can you see it?
Try to find somewhere with low light pollution, away from cities and street lights.
Look east in the sky an hour before sunrise to see the planets together.
At 8.05am tomorrow there will be a full moon, with the moon on the opposite side of us to the sun so we see it fully lit (October’s full moon is known as a Hunter’s Moon).
People on Twitter have been posting their snaps from this morning’s display.
The planets in the night sky over Wales:
Here they are in East Lincolnshire:
And in Guatemala:
You don’t need a telescope to see the planets as they are bright enough for the naked eye to spot.