When you look at the northern sky, you can follow the arm of the Big Dipper as it arcs around toward the bright star called Arcturus. Roughly in the middle of that arc, you'll find the Northern Crown constellation, which looks a bit like a smiley face. Sometime between now and September, if you look to the left-hand side of the Northern Crown, what will look like a new star will shine for five days or so.

This star system is called T. Coronae Borealis, also known as the Blaze Star, and most of the time, it is way too dim to be visible to the naked eye. But once roughly every 80 years, a violent thermonuclear explosion makes it over 10,000 times brighter. The last time it happened was in 1946, so now it’s our turn to see it.

On June 3, six planets form a straight line through the pre-dawn sky that stretches from Jupiter on the eastern end (closest to the horizon) up through Mercury, Uranus, Mars, and Neptune, to Saturn on the western end, highest in the sky before sunrise. Some 20 minutes before sunrise, all six planets should be visible, though note that Uranus (magnitude 5.9) and Neptune (magnitude 7. will be too faint for naked-eye observing and, although they’re present in the lineup, will need binoculars or a telescope to spot. But Jupiter (magnitude –2), Mercury (magnitude –1), Mars (magnitude 1), and Saturn (magnitude 1) will all stand out clearly to the naked eye in a line spanning some 73° on the sky.

What’s more, a delicate waning crescent Moon is crashing the party as well, standing just to the lower left of Mars. Note, however, that our Moon is not perfectly in line — that’s because Luna’s orbit is tilted some 5° with respect to the ecliptic.