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Alex Cabrero ReportingSomething is going to happen over the skies of Utah tomorrow that hasn't been seen since Utah became a state! If you want to see it, though, you're going to have to get up bright and early.
Hopefully, we'll have clear skies tomorrow morning so we can see this once-in-a-lifetime event. The planets Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter will all be bunched together and visible with just your eyes.
Nate Call and his boys have never been to the Clark Planetarium before, but after today they just might come back often.
Nate Call/ Draper: "They look like people who are visiting New York for the first time, just gazing around and taking it all in."
As always, it's the planet display that seems to make children stop and look.
Roger Fitzpatrick: "They love the planets, yeah,"
All nine of them, if you still count Pluto, ready to be explored by new minds.
Roger Fitzpatrick: "They like the big one, Jupiter."
Big ole' Jupiter gets plenty of looks. And tomorrow morning, you can look at it for real, with your own eyes.
Nate Call: "I had no idea it was even happening."
Oh, it's happening all right... and it'll look something like this. Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars, all clustered in one small spot.
Patrick Wiggins/ Utah NASA Ambassador: "We're going to see something tomorrow that literally has not been seen on this planet since the Civil War."
Utah's NASA ambassador Patrick Wiggins is sure geeked up about it. From the observatory he works in at Stansbury Park, he scans the skies all the time for neat things. This event is pretty neat.
Patrick Wiggins: "I'm telling people to go outside around 6:45, maybe a little earlier, and just start scanning the eastern horizon and wait for a couple of bright dots to rise."
They might be hard to see with mountains in the way. You need to find a spot where you can see a low eastern horizon. But if you get the chance, check it out, because it won't happen again in our lifetime.
Patrick Wiggins: "This is a good time to be alive, to see all this neat stuff coming up."
Mix all this with yesterday morning's bright meteor that a lot of people reported seeing, and with the space shuttle launch planned in less than an hour, and it's a fun time for those interested in space-- even for those who aren't.
