Buy a lottery ticket? 5 planets align in rare sky show

Your lucky stars, or at least your lucky planets may be aligning. Even if you're not feeling lucky, here's a good reason to get up before sunrise the next few weeks.

A rare planetary alignment not seen in 10 years will produce a dazzling sky show in the pre-dawn sky through February 20th. All five major bright planets will line up in the southern sky before sunrise the next few weeks.

Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter will be visible about an hour before sunrise, in the southern sky.

Here's more from Sky and Telescope.

A rare sight will greet early risers starting Wednesday morning. About 45 minutes before sunrise, five planets – Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter – will all be visible in the sky.

The best time to get planetary sightseeing in will be at the end of the week. By then, the five aforementioned planets will form an arch-shaped line in the sky that will be fairly easy to follow. The moon will pop up in the intergalactic line-up shortly thereafter.

To accurately identify each planet, it is best to consult a map. As shown in the diagram above, the correct order will be Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter (Venus and Jupiter are the brightest, the rest are dim).

While stargazing, it might be tempting to ponder just how far away from Earth the planets are. Closest to home is Mercury, located over 80 million miles away. Saturn, meanwhile, is the farthest from Earth, over a billion miles away.

Venus is obvious as it lingers above the southeastern horizon. It's actually in decline, not nearly as high up as you saw it toward the end of 2015. But Venus has no equal for brightness among the night's planets and stars. Way over to the right, on the southwestern side of the sky, is Jupiter. In between are four bright beacons: not far from Venus are Saturn and, below it, the star Antares. Shift your gaze farther right to sweep up Mars, then the star Spica, and finally Jupiter.

The fifth planet is Mercury, which was spotable low in the southwest after sunset just two weeks ago. But it's been racing rapidly from evening to morning visibility. (The fleetest of planets can do that, since it circles the Sun in just 88 days.) Your first good chance to spot Mercury before dawn comes later this week. By Friday, the 22nd, find a clear view toward southeast and look 5° above the horizon. That's about the width of your three middle fingers held together at arm's length. It's along a diagonal from Saturn through Venus, about as far from Venus as Saturn is. Day by day, Mercury will appear a little higher up and a little brighter. By month's end, it'll be easy to spot.