Cue a return to night skies—if only briefly—for giant planet Jupiter, which will this week pass very closely to Venus. A close pairing of planets is always worth seeing, if only for its rarity.

Venus, Earth's sister planet ... The one closest to the moon is Jupiter, shining at a magnitude of -2.5, while Aldebaran — the brightest star in the constellation Taurus — lies below it.

All month, four planets — Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars — will appear to line up and be bright enough to see with the naked eye in the first few hours after dark, according to NASA.

In a celestial event known as a great alignment the five planets will be discernible with the naked eye, but to see Neptune ...

At least four planets — Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn — should be visible with the naked eye if you’re not in a light-polluted downtown area. A couple of others, such as Neptune and Uranus ...