It's an early rush hour for planets in the eastern sky this month. A total of six planets are crowding the predawn skies. Adding to the congestion, but also the beauty, is the waning moon.

With the longest day of the year approaching, that means you have to be up super early to see this planet parade. Around Butler, that means a wake-up call of 3:30 a.m., or if you wish, capping off an all-night stargazing party with the morning planet show.

There's only about six hours when it's truly dark this time of year anyway. Accept the challenge of finding all six planets.

From our view on Earth, all the planets take the same highway through the heavens as they travel in their orbits around the sun. Actually, the ecliptic is the exact path the sun seems to take among the stars as our Earth orbits the sun.

Since the orbits of all of the planets in our solar system lie pretty much in the same flat plane, the planets also travel closely along the ecliptic, within seven degrees on either side of it. They move along the ecliptic among the background stars, predominantly in an eastward direction at various speeds depending on their distance from the sun. The distant planets trudge along the ecliptic at a much slower pace than the speedier inner planets like Venus and Mercury.

It just so happens this month that six of our solar system neighbors are bunched together in nearly the same direction from the Earth west to the sun in our morning sky. They're strung out from the low eastern predawn sky to about a third of the way between the horizon and the overhead zenith in the south-southeastern sky. Some of the planets are right next to each other in the sky.

Now, of course they're not actually physically close together. They just happen to lie in nearly the same direction in space from the Earth. Our own moon also travels eastward fairly close to the ecliptic among the stars from night to night, but moves much faster than the planets as it circles our Earth every 27.3 days. Because of its proximity to the ecliptic, the moon has regular close conjunctions or hugs with our fellow planets.

Jupiter and Neptune are cozying up to each other in our morning sky right now. Jupiter is by far the brighter of the two because it's so much larger than Neptune and is so much closer.

You can't miss Jupiter. Just look in the low south-southeast sky, and it will be by far the brightest starlike object in that part of the heavens. With even a small to moderate telescope, you can see the disk of Jupiter with a few of its darker cloud bands striping the 88,000-mile wide planet. You'll also see tiny stars on either side of the king of the planets, which are its brighter and bigger moons. Right now, Jupiter is about 418 million miles away, and the separation between us and Jupiter is narrowing, leaving for a much brighter Jupiter in the months to come.

Now, take your telescope and scan about two degrees to the upper right of Jupiter. Two degrees is about the width of two of your fingers held at arm's length. Look for a green, fuzzy dot. That's Neptune checking in from more than two billion miles away.

The planet Uranus, Neptune's neighbor in the outer cheap seats of our solar system, is to the lower left of Jupiter and Neptune in our morning sky. Even though it's not quite as far from Earth, Uranus is so far away that there's no way you can see it with the unaided eye. In fact, even with a telescope you'll have a tough time finding it. Fortunately the moon will help out this week.

On Monday morning, look for Uranus about a fist width at arm's length to the lower left of the moon, and on Tuesday morning, as the moon migrates to the east, Uranus will be about one-half of a fist width at arm's length to the lower right of our lunar friend. Just like Neptune, Uranus will appear as a fuzzy, green dot through a small to moderate telescope.

By far the best attraction in the morning sky during the next couple weeks will be the Venus and Mars show.

Remember the old book, "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"? It's a book about how the opposite sexes can get along better with each other. Well, the women from Venus and the men from Mars really better get along because the two planets are going to be practically kissing.

Venus is blazing brightly in the low eastern sky just before twilight begins. Venus is by far the brightest of the six planets now available in the early morning. Just to the upper left of Venus, look for the planet Mars. You should be able to see it with the naked eye, and even without a telescope, it will have a slight reddish hue.

On Friday morning, there will be a really sweet sight in the pre-dawn sky as the waning crescent moon lies just above the smooching Venus and Mars. You'll like what you see. It's worth losing sleep over!

To round out the morning planet party, the sixth planet available is Mercury, rising after morning twilight begins, located to the lower left of Venus and Mars. You'll really need a low horizon to see it. I suggest looking from a hilltop. Mercury will look like a moderately bright star.

Well, that's it. See if you can hunt down all six morning planets this week.

By the way, once again there's an Internet hoax concerning Mars. It claims Mars will be as big as the full moon in August. It's completely bogus. Help spread the word about this hoax.

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 Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.