The school year kicks off with a great parade of planets in the evening skies, as four of the six visible planets will make an appearance during the evening hours following sunset. For the first half of September, students will have an opportunity for viewing and comparing the relative orbital speeds of planets and the effect of Earth’s revolution. Simply look toward the west at sunset for a trio of planets a couple hand widths above the horizon. The brightest member of the trio will be Venus, greatly outshining nearby Mercury and Mars.