This first full week of June, you have an opportunity to easily see the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn with just the naked eye, even if you're viewing from places doused in heavy urban light pollution.

And also, as a bonus, with the help of just a modest pair of binoculars, you can easily find Uranus. In fact, Neptune is the only planet not easily seen this week. If you're like me and still count Pluto as a planet, it's also beyond the reach of casual stargazers, but don't get me started about Pluto being officially declassified, or fired as one of our planets, as I like to say.

Venus is by far the easiest of the planets to spot. It's the brightest starlike object in the sky. Our closest neighbor in the solar system and the second closest planet to the sun is a bright beacon in the low western sky, seen even before the end of evening twilight.

As bright as it is, there isn't a whole lot to see on Venus, even with a larger telescope, because it's completely shrouded by a thick and poisonous cloud cover that produces a runaway greenhouse effect on the Venusian surface. Temperatures there can reach more than 900 degrees!

As it gets a little darker, you can't help but notice the planet named after the Roman god of love is keeping company with two bright stars perched to its upper right. While these two aren't nearly as bright as Venus, they are the brightest stars in the constellation Gemini the Twins. The one on the left closest to Venus is Pollux, a star almost 7 million miles in diameter, or eight times the size of the sun, which sits about 34 light-years away from the sun. (By the way, just one light-year equals nearly 6 trillion miles.)

In 2006, it was determined Pollux has at least one large planet orbiting it that is estimated to be two to three times the size of Jupiter.

Castor, to right of Pollux in the constellation Gemini, appears to be a star almost 50 light-years away. I say "appears to be a star" because what looks like a single star to the naked eye is actually four or possibly more stars orbiting each other in a highly chaotic pattern.

Multiple star systems are actually quite common. In fact more than half the stars you see with the naked eye in the celestial dome are actually binary, triple, quadruple or more star systems. Single stars like our sun are the exception rather than the rule.

Saturn and Mars also are available in the evening sky, hanging out in the lower western sky in and around the wonderful constellation Leo the Lion. As you can see in the diagram, there are two sides to Leo. On the lower right side is the fairly bright and distinctive sickle or backward question mark leaning to the right that outlines the chest and head of the celestial king of the beasts.

Normally, there's just one brighter star at the bottom, or period, of the question mark, but this week, there are two stars, with one sporting a copperish red hue to it.

The ruddy one is Mars, a planet only about half the size of Earth. Unfortunately, Mars isn't much of a telescope target right now because it's so far away at a distance of nearly 150 million mile, which is nearly its maximum distance from Earth. In less than two years, Mars will be a lot closer and more telescope friendly.

That other star is actually a star at the bottom of the question mark that marks the heart of Leo the Lion. It's Regulus, and it's nearly 78 light-years away. A light-year is defined as the distance a light beam travels in a year's time, so the light we see from Regulus this week left that star in 1932 as America was pulling out of the great depression.The upper right side of the constellation Leo is made up of a fairly bright triangle of stars that outline the butt and tail of the heavenly Lion. Just below and to the left of Leo's hind quarters is the lovely planet Saturn, which is always a great telescope target with its famous ring system and family of tiny little starlike moons.Even if you have a smaller scope, it's worth a look-see even though this year the ring system is still nearly on edge from our view on Earth. Saturn also lacks a little telescope luster right now since it's more than 900 million miles away, nearly its yearly maximum separation from earth.To see the other three planets, set your alarm for about 4 a.m. and look to the east.You can't miss Jupiter in the low east-southeast sky. It's by far the brightest "star" lighting the early morning sky. It's the largest planet in our solar system, with a girth of more than 88,000 miles. It's so gargantuan, you could line up 11 Earths along its diameter. Through even a small telescope, you can see up to four of Jupiter's moons, which revolve around it in periods of two to 17 days. You might even see some of Jupiter's brighter cloud bands that stripe the planet, which currently is about 475 million miles away from our backyards.As you peer at Jupiter and its moons through your telescope, you'll see in the same field of view a greenish looking star less than one-half a degree to the upper left of Jupiter. That's the very distant planet Uranus, which is four times the diameter of Earth and really "out there" at nearly 2 billion miles way. As a really nice reward Sunday morning, you'll see the waning crescent moon a little above and to the left of Jupiter and Uranus.Finally, in the early morning sky, you might get a quick peek of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. Because it's so physically close to the sun, it never strays very far from the sun in our sky. Without a doubt, Mercury will be the trickiest to spot as it rises above the east northeast horizon just as morning twilight begins. You'll need a low treeless horizon to have any real chance of spotting Mercury.So enjoy your planetary scavenger hunt this week. Another fun thing to do is to watch the changing positions of the planets with each other and the backdrop of stars as our fellow passengers in our solar system whirl around our home star, the sun.Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his website www.lynchandthestars.com.