Stargazers Get Rare Look at Three Planets
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Dec. 9) — Stargazers will get a rare triple planetary treat this weekend with Jupiter, Mercury and Mars appearing to nestle together in the predawn skies. About 45 minutes before dawn on Sunday those three planets will be so close that the average person’s thumb can obscure all three from view.
They will be almost as close together on Saturday and Monday, but Sunday they will be within one degree of each other in the sky. Three planets haven’t been that close since 1925, said Miami Space Transit Planetarium director Jack Horkheimer.
And it won’t happen again until 2053, he said.
“Jupiter will be very bright and it will look like it has two bright lights next to it, and they won’t twinkle because they’re planets,” said Horkheimer, host of the television show “Star Gazer. “This is the kind of an event that turns young children into Carl Sagans.”
The planets are actually hundreds of millions of miles apart, but the way the planets orbit the sun make it appear they are neighbors in the east-southeastern skies. They’ll be visible in most parts of the world – in the Western Hemisphere, as far south as Buenos Aires and as far north as Juneau, Alaska, Horkheimer said.
The full article can be read here. 
this is pretty kewl and brings me to some recollections….as a kid I also had aspirations to be an astronaut 🙂 lol. I learned a lot of them were from Ohio and i was also born in Ohio. But in time my dreams faded with realization that those chances were dim. So, I wonder if a child is easily discouraged it is even more important for parents to be as encouraging as possible especially when things tend to sail away from home.
Hmmm…this is like when you catch all three Polgar sisters, Susan, Judit, and Sofia all lined up together.