Four planets put on a spectacular celestial light show (VIDEO)

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Four planets will huddle close together, visible to the naked eye, in the predawn sky this week, according to StarDate magazine.

Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter should be viewable just above the horizon, for those with a clear view, on Wednesday morning, NASA reports. The four planets are spaced within 10 degrees of each other, with Venus and Jupiter shining especially brightly. Venus in broad daylight if you know where to look.

Optimal viewing time on the east coast would occur around 5:30 a.m. or 30 minutes prior to sunrise Wednesday.

Throughout the month, the four planets will rearrange themselves on a daily basis, forming different shapes in the pre-dawn sky, NASA reports.

On Tuesday morning, Venus and Jupiter were standing side by side low in the east. The brightest objects in the night sky after the Moon, they were easy to spot for those with a view of the horizon, reports StarDate, a bi-monthly publication of The University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory, which houses many telescopes responsible for a wide range of astronomical research.

Venus is the brighter of the two and Jupiter is to its left. Mercury is visible to the lower right of Venus, about the same distance as Venus is to Jupiter, the magazine editors say. Mars, meanwhile, is about twice as far to the lower left of Jupiter, but low and faint and so difficult to see without binoculars.

"The best view is from the southern states because the path the planets follow across the sky [the ecliptic] stands at a little higher angle relative to the horizon," StarDate's editors said.

The show ends May 30, when a crescent Moon joins the four planets in the eastern sky. 

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