A never-ending, never repeating dance.

A continually shifting pattern. Moving closer, passing, moving apart again.

At times creating spectacular configurations. And along with these configurations in the heavens, I notice interesting synchronicities in my own life.

Was this the beginning of astrology?

The Story So Far: A summary of the dance from the last 25 years.

April 1,1989 seems as good a place as any to begin chronicling the dance.

Mars and Jupiter are in conjunction. Two bright planets hanging together near the setting sun.

Saturn is at opposite side of the sky. Saturn rises as Jupiter sets. This opposition happens once every twenty one years. Over the next eleven years the two will slowly approach each other, meeting up in May 2000.

Venus and Mercury are also in conjunction, but invisible. They both are hiding directly behind the Sun.

Soon swift Mercury comes out from behind the sun, followed by the slower moving Venus. The two rise to greet Jupiter.

Late April, 1989: The Sun, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars lie equally spaced in a straight line along the ecliptic. But Venus is still too close to the Sun to be seen.

The ecliptic is the imaginary line stretching across the sky, along which the sun, moon and planets all appear to move. If, for example, the sun has just set, and the moon is up high, then the ecliptic is the line from the sun (somewhere just over the horizon) through the moon and beyond to the opposite horizon. The planets will also be not far from that line. It doesn't take long to get to know where the ecliptic lies, and roughly where to look for planets.

May: Mercury reaches out towards Jupiter, almost touching her before falling back towards the sun. drawing Jupiter down behind.

Mercury is my favorite planet, mainly because it is seldom seen. It stays close to the sun. and is only visible as it swings out to the edge of its orbit, and then only for a few days, and just after sunset, or before sunrise. You have to know where to look for it, and when. And even then you need a clear, haze free skies, and a low horizon. Its the fact you have to work to see it that makes it so special for me.

A month later Venus appears, reaching out towards Mars. They touch for a while, then Mars falls into the glare of the setting sun.

Now lone Saturn takes the lead, rising into the Eastern sky. Venus hangs expectantly low in the West. She waits there patiently, while Saturn makes her lonely march across the sky. In mid-November they pass. On Dec 1, the crescent Moon lies gracefully between them.

At the same time, bright Jupiter returns to the Eastern evening sky, rising as bright Venus sets.

At year’s end, when Venus finally drops back toward the Sun, Mercury and Saturn are there to welcome her, though too much in sun’s glare to be easily seen.

Now it is Jupiter’s turn to trek alone across the ecliptic. By March 1990 it is high overhead.

Mid April, Mercury pops up briefly to welcome Jupiter. The other visible planets–Venus, Mars, and Saturn–are meanwhile strung out in a nice line in the pre-dawn sky, with Saturn high overhead.

Mid-summer and Jupiter has gone to join the sun, to be replaced by Saturn rising into the midnight sky. Rising earlier each month, she makes another lone traverse, and in December disappears again, leaving Mars to take the limelight in the East.

Jan 1991: Mars is now overhead. Venus reappears in the West, while Jupiter rises in the East. Together the three bright planets span the night sky.

The stage is now set for a spectacular dance. Over the next six months Mars, Venus and Jupiter will pull together as if joined by an elastic thread, heading towards a remarkable triple conjunction.

I watch week by week through the Spring and into the summer, as they pull closer and closer. By May they are an unmistakable bright trio high in the West.

By mid-June they have all arrived at the same point in the sky. People are standing out in the streets to marvel at this once in a lifetime conjunction. And right on cue the crescent moon passes by to add her radiant glory. A magical sight that I will remember forever.

By August the three heroes have fallen into the setting sun in August, leaving Saturn to make another lonely trek across the evening sky.

The bright trio continue their dance into the early morning sky. By early November Venus and Jupiter are dancing high in the pre-dawn sky. Then Venus bids farewell, and slowly drops back toward the sun, leaving Jupiter to cross the sky alone once more.

Venus does not finally disappear from the morning sky till early 1992. Passing behind the sun she reappears in the evening sky in August just in time to meet Jupiter whose come the long way round. Venus hands Jupiter on to the sun, then hangs around low in the West for five months while Saturn makes her way across.

On the winter solstice Venus rises up to meet Saturn as she passes on her way to the sun. Venus has been in the evening sky for five months now. But still stays, climbing ever higher. The reason? Mars, the third member of our heroic trio has finally reappeared.

January and February, 1993: Venus climbs higher and higher towards the approaching Mars. But alas she cannot hold on. Finally she drops back toward the sun, escorted by Mercury making one of his brief appearances, leaving Mars shining brightly overhead.

But by now Jupiter has returned in the East and is chasing Mars across the sky.

Early June and Mercury rises above the setting sun. Jupiter is at its zenith and Mars midway between Mercury and Jupiter. A nice line of 3 planets.

Mercury drops back into the sun, and Jupiter continues chasing Mars, eventually catching her in August, just above the sunset.

Through the autumn, Saturn performs another lone pass across the evening sky. She looks much like another star in the night sky. And you have to know where she is to spot her. But she is a star that isn’t normally there, a point of light moving slowly across the sky.

When she eventually arrives in the West, Saturn is met by Mercury rising to perform a close conjunction in February of 1994.

May 1994: Venus appears in the Western sky, balancing bright Jupiter rising in the East.

She hangs there through till September by which time Jupiter has traversed the heavens and the two meet and together disappear into the sunset.

1995: Five years ago Jupiter and Saturn were in opposition. But Saturn has been slowly catching up, and now rises while Jupiter is still high in the sky. Each year the two slowly draw closer, heading towards their spectacular meet in 2000.

Saturn completes another traverse in January 1995, and as she sets in the West, Mars is rising in the East, very bright. Later, in the early morning hours, Jupiter and Venus rise together in brilliant conjunction.

In March, Venus drops back toward the rising sun, briefly met by Mercury making a bright early morning appearance.

Now it is Mars’ turn to traverse the sky alone. But by the time it is half way across, Jupiter has reappeared in the East, and traveling faster, slowly draws closer.

Mid-November 1995: Jupiter catches up with Mars, and simultaneously Venus rises out from behind the setting sun to join them in another magnificent triple conjunction. Though this time they are lower in the sky, and closer to the sunset, so not so easily visible as their triple conjunction four years previously.

Dispatching Jupiter and Mars on their way, Venus hangs around to meet Saturn, who by now is not so far behind. On Feb 1, 1996 the two meet. Then Saturn disappears into the sunset, leaving Venus to climb high into the Spring dusk. She stays there, brilliant, till the middle of summer.

Jupiter now rises an hour after sunset, followed by Saturn four hours later, and Mars just before dawn.

Throughout the last three months of the year, Saturn and Jupiter are both in the evening sky. Jupiter completing its journey at year’s end. Followed by Saturn three months later, leaving Mars rising in the East at the Spring Equinox of 1997.

late Spring 1997, a special visitor arrives, Comet Hale-Bopp. First she appears in the dawn sky - many mornings I set the alarm just to get up see it, and then went back to sleep again. After passing around the sun it is in the evening sky. This is a particularly bright comet, and an added surprise, a two-tailed one.

By the summer solstice, Mars is high in the West, and Jupiter reappearing in the Eastern sky. Venus and Mercury rise in tandem at the end of July. Mercury soon slips back, but Venus hangs on, rising slowly to meet a rather faint Mars in a lovely conjunction on the autumn equinox.

Saturn is now well up in the East, and Jupiter at her zenith. Mars and Venus hang around together waiting for them. Mars and Venus move back into conjunction on the winters solstice.

Then Venus drops back, and Mars retraces her steps, going up to touch Jupiter in mid-January 1998.

But Mars is still not done. As Jupiter fades into the sun’s glare, Mars hangs on waiting for Saturn, who by now is only three hours behind Jupiter. At the spring equinox, Mars is close to Jupiter in the West, and Mercury has popped up to join them, forming a lovely equilateral triangle.

Ten days later they move into triple conjunction, in a straight line across the ecliptic. A most unusual sight.

Over the last six months Mars, though faint, has made met all four of the other visible planets. And mars continues to play an interesting role in the great 5-fold conjunction coming up.

Through the summer of 1998, the evening skies are quiet. The activity is in the morning. Jupiter leads Saturn high up into the sky, followed closely by Venus, and closer to the sun, Mars and Mercury.

By midsummer, Jupiter is rising at midnight, with Saturn two hours behind. By autumn they are both high overhead in the middle of the night. Unmistakably become a pair again after nearly twenty years apart.

By years end they are high overhead at dusk, with Venus rising to welcome them both in the West.

Mid-February, 1999, and Venus meets Jupiter, with Mercury not far behind her.

Early March and Mercury almost touches Jupiter, while Venus goes on to meet Saturn.

As the others pass into the sunset, Venus hangs high in the West throughout the spring and summer. That unmistakable brilliant evening star, in the same place night after night, month after month.

Slowly Mars makes her way across. But not fast enough. July and Venus is finally making her way back towards the sun.

Then another one of those moments of a lifetime. A total solar eclipse. Total solar eclipses themselves arn’t that unusual; there’s one every year or two. But this one is happening in my home land, close to where I grew up. It turns out to be a most remarkable experience, and in some completely unexpected ways. (Report on eclipse).

In the following months Mars does something very strange. Instead of following her normal path into the sun she stays around taking up a sentry stance low in the South-West. Its as if she knows what is coming in nine months time, and is waiting for it.

I too know what is coming, and watch expectantly as the dancers take up their positions. September and Jupiter is rising followed closely Saturn. The first time I see them, a nearly full moon is sitting right between them. Month by month they draw closer and closer, heading towards their grand reunion.

At the winter solstice, Jupiter and Saturn are paired up high in the South. While Mars waits dutifully on her spot in the West. This night there is a full moon, and a very special one. The winter moons are always brighter because she is higher in the sky. But this time she is also at her closest approach to the earth, which makes her an additional ten per cent brighter. The brightest full moon for 133 years. And just a week away from the turn of a millennium.

At the hour of the full moon, deep in the night, I complete the final edits on a new book, then sit watching the moon so, so brilliant, shining through a patch in the clouds.

In the spring Mar’s nine month wait is rewarded. Late March, Jupiter and Saturn have nearly met up with Mars, and Mercury rises high and bright to create an unforgettable line in the evening sky. I remember the first time I saw them, I stood captivate by their brilliant line cutting across the dusk sky.

At the spring equinox, as Mercury dropped back, Jupiter and Saturn have drawn much closer to Mars, forming a tight line of three in the evening sky.

Three weeks later, Mars does a neat pass by Jupiter and comes to sit between her and Saturn in an even tighter line. This is the tightest conjunction all these three planets for a hundred years. And on April 7th the new moon joins them.

Unfortunately, the final moves of this piece are hidden from our view. As Jupiter and Saturn drop into the sun’s glare, Venus, who has been very bright in the early dawn, and Mercury are approaching from the other side of the sun.

Mars, however, is the last to drop behind back behind the sun. She has been in the night sky now for a total of twenty three months -- probably the longest performances I will ever experience.

Mid-May, and all are behind the sun together. Nothing quite like this has happened in recorded history. And its occurring at the very time that Jupiter and Saturn touch each other for the first time in twenty one years.

Because all five visible planets are behind the sun, the night sky is now unusual in another way. For several weeks, no planets are visible, not in the evening, not in the middle of the night, and not in the dawn. This will be the only time in my life that the night sky will be totally devoid of planets. A period to be deeply savored, while imagining the grand reunion taking place behind the sun.

Over the next few months they all reappear in reverse. Mercury first, making a quick dart into the evening sky. Then Venus reappears in July, remaining low but bright in the West through the end of the year.

Jupiter and Saturn appear in the morning sky, but now in reverse order, Saturn slightly ahead of Jupiter. Now they are very slowly pulling apart again, off once more on their twenty year dance.

By October they are both rising in the evening sky, opposite bright Venus. Venus stretches way up into the sky at year’s end–so bright that it is possible to see her in the daytime, if you know where to look. Meanwhile Jupiter and Saturn have risen equally high in the East.

Late January 2001, Mercury shining bright and silver, comes up to create a line of four planets stretching across two thirds of the sky.

Venus finally drops back in late March, and Jupiter and Saturn follow her into the sun three months later. But not before Mercury has risen to dance around them both in delicate arc.

Mars is now rising at dusk, and preparing the way for another spectacular display.

Through the summer she moves slowly across the sky, as if waiting for the others. And she is unusually bright. On the solstice she is at her closest approach to the Earth, and the brightest for 13 years.

By November Saturn is rising at dusk, at her brightest for 30 years, followed closely by Jupiter. Together they march across towards Mars.

Late February, 2002: Venus emerges from behind the sun at dusk and for next three months Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Venus are visible. Another clear line across the evening sky.

In April Mercury joins them, initiating one of the most remarkable dances of I’ll ever see.

Not for forty years will all five visible planets be in the sky together, and even then, not as tightly spaced as they will be over the coming weeks. If there was ever an auspicious time, this is it (and it certainly turns out to be so in my own life).

The second half of April, all five draw a neat line across the Western sky. Mercury, brilliant in the clear air, then Venus shining at her brightest. Above her, Mars now dimming quite rapidly. Then Saturn, and on top them all Jupiter, nearly as bright as Venus.

April 13-18, the new moon passes by, spending a night with each of them.

May 1, 2002: Mars, Saturn and Mercury have all draw much closer to Venus. On May 5 Mars, Saturn, and Venus form a beautiful tight equilateral triangle. At the same time Jupiter high above forms a much larger equilateral triangle with Venus and Sirius, the brightest star. Another one of those sights I will never forget. One huge triangle and another a tenth the size, nestling in the corner. And Mercury showing off below them all.

(And while all this is taking shape, there is comet the other side of the sun. But despite getting up very early a couple of times, I didn't get to see it. )

As the triangle dissolves, Mars passes so close to Venus as to be virtually indistingushable. Two days later, Mars and Saturn hang directly below Venus, while Mercury, Venus and Jupiter draw an equally clear intersecting line up along the ecliptic.

Mercury now begins to drop back, but not before the new moon joins in, passing the planets again, as if kissing each good night. The night she lay between Mercury and Saturn was the last I saw of Mercury on this round - and the last time till 2040 I'll see all five together. And they won't be as close again till 2070.

The last move in this line-up is a brilliant conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in early June. Then jupiter follows Mars, Saturn, and Mercury into the sunset. Venus hangs around for a couple of months, then too goes her way.

During the early months, Jupiter and Saturn reappear and march across the sky forming a bright triangle with Sirius. As they disappear into the West, they leave the sky empty for Mars, which launches itself into a magnificent a solo performance. It crosses the evening sky in the summer, making its brightest appearance in 60,000 years.

Mars fades, but hangs around waiting for the others to join it after its magificant solo performance. Venus, which had been skulking in the dusk, rose to clear visibility, at the end of 2003. While Saturn and Jupiter approached Mars from the East. In late march, Mercury came up to join Venus completing a clear line of the five visible planets.

Venus was at its most brilliant for seven years, and I observed it in the clearest air on Earth, 14,000 foot, Mauna Kea. The air was so clear, and Venus so bright, that Venus cast its own shadow. One of those unique, once in a lifetime experiences. Venus Shadow. At the same moment Mercury was at its farthest from the sun, affording a rare spectacle.

Throughout the summer Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and finally Jupiter all faded into the evening twilight, ending a most memorable 18 month movement.

They now move to the morning sky, preparing for a finale - another appearance of all five planets at the turn of the year. This will be their last appearance together until 2016.

After their line-up, Mercury and Venus swing behind the sun and appear in the Western evening sky in the Spring, while Saturn, followed by Jupiter, march across the evening sky from the East. Saturn greets Venus and Mercury returning from behind the sun, forming a tight little trio in June. Saturn then sinks into the twilight, while Venus says goodbye to Mercury and rises up to greet Jupiter in mid September. Jupiter continues towards the setting sun in October, while Venus continues to climb higher and brighter throughout the year. Meanwhile, Mars, shining brightly climbs up to stand sentinel over the winter sky.

The year opens with Venus sliding quickly back towards the sun. Mars leads Saturn, followed by Jupiter into the evening sky, and by Spring the three stretch a line from horizon to horizon. Venus soon reappears in the morning sky and in early March is briefly visited by a blue streak, a hitherto unknown comet, Comet Pojmanski.

Mars hangs back waiting for Saturn, and the two meet in mid-Summer. As Saturn moves on, Marcury briefly stretches towards her, but doesn't quite make it, and both fall into the twilight. Valiantly, Mercury reaches up again and this time passes Mars. Mercury stays around long enough to greet Jupiter too, as it moves into the twilight. And as both sink into the sun's glare, Venus climbs up, touching first Mars, then Mercury and Jupiter, beginning another of her majestic evening appearances.

The year opens with another surprise comet, McNaught, which turned out to be the brightest comet in fifty years.

To be continued . . . Coming attractions.