“Bend low again, night of summer stars. So near you are, sky of summer stars,

So near, a long-arm man can pick off stars,

Pick off what he wants in the sky bowl,

So near you are, summer stars,

So near, strumming, strumming,

So lazy and hum-strumming.”

“Summer Stars” by Carl Sandburg

Although it is not easy to see past the light pollution of the city, there are areas where stars appear to burst through and shine brightly. If you can take a few minutes to drive away from the artificial lights of communities you can see even more.

According the Night Sky Planner/Night Sky Network, June brought “a rare lineup of five planets arcing across the sky before sunrise. Now it’s July and you still have a little time left to spot all five planets before Mercury drops back into the sunrise glare. The planets align in the same order as their orbits outward from the sun.”

Mercury is close to the sunrise horizon, Venus shines above it, then follow the sun’s path upward across our sky. You will see red Mars, bright Jupiter and finally golden Saturn, according to the Night Sky Network.

But don’t delay stargazing; this line up will end shortly after July begins. For more information go to nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov.

Humans have been gazing up at these planets since, well, there were humans. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, to the eye, appear to be stars and because of their movement in the heavens throughout the year, they were known as wandering stars. “Planet” comes from the Greek word “wanderer.” To many ancient civilizations these planets were deities and some, like Plato, actually began studying the planets’ movement. Well, maybe not study like we do now but tried to answer the question of why planets moved so differently from stars. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy wrote a book – “Almagest” – that included his theory of the motions of the planets. Then came the Renaissance, the invention of the telescope and Galileo. And gazing into the night sky would never be the same.

There will be sun and more sun as we head into the end of the week. Today will see a high of 84 degrees Fahrenheit with lows of 64. That temperature will continue through the weekend when temps will rise to about 90 then, as we return to the work week, 86 degrees will be the norm.

Created by the staff of CV Weekly