On Wednesday, a rare celestial event will unfold as six planets — Mercury,Jupiter, Mars, Uranus, Saturn and Neptune — align across the sky on new moonday. Jupiter, Mars and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye, a pair ofbinoculars or a telescope will be need to spot the others, if it is notcloudy and the city lights do not obscure the smaller planets. The alignment coincides with the annual Perseid meteor shower, which willpeak overnight from August 12, producing 10 to 50 shooting stars per hour. Samarth Majumdar of the University of Hyderabad Astronomy Club saidenthusiasts usually gather with instruments to observe such rare events, butthe monsoon cloud cover have left clubs disappointed. Mrunalinee Ramanja, scientific officer at Birla Planetarium, Hyderabad,said, “The cloudy sky predicted by IMD will dampen the six‑planet alignmentand Perseid shower for city enthusiasts.