Beginning April 14, the Moon will pay a visit to four of the five planets. It will appear to pass by three planets on three consecutive evenings (April 14: Venus; April 15: Mars; and April 16: Saturn). It will then pass Jupiters vicinity on April 18.

Meanwhile, Mercury, often called the "elusive planet," will emerge into surprisingly easy view by the third week of April.

Here are the night-by-night details:

Brilliant Venus, which first became visible -- with difficulty -- just six weeks ago, is now very prominent in the west-northwest evening sky and is setting nearly two hours after the Sun. On this night after sunset, look for it hovering off to the right of a beautiful slender crescent Moon just two days past new phase.

As the sky darkens, see if you can make out the beautiful effect called earthshine, which is the result of reflected sunlight. Along with the bright crescent, the rest of the Moon may appear dimly illuminated with a sort of bluish-gray glow.

To better understand what you are seeing, imagine you are an astronaut on the lunar surface and looking up toward Earth. You would see the Earth go through phases in the same manner that the Moon goes through phases as seen from Earth. But theres an important difference: the phase of the Earth as seen from the Moon is exactly the opposite to the phase of the Moon as seen from the Earth!

Astronomers refer to this phenomenon as "complementary phases." Thus, on this night, while the Moon will appear as a mere skinny sliver from our Earthly perspective, anyone on the Moon would see Earth as an almost fully-illuminated disk, and nearly four times larger than our own full Moon!

Since much of the Moon that is turned toward the Earth is currently in darkness, the only thing that is illuminating the lunar landscape is the Sun's light reflecting off the nearly full Earth.

This dim "earthshine" is sometimes referred to as "the old Moon in the new Moons arms."

Check out both the Moon and Venus in binoculars: the Moon will appear as a three-dimensional ball as it hangs just off to the left of Venus, which glows like a dazzling white jewel.

One night after visiting with the brightest of the planets, the Moon will be passing by the dimmest of the developing planet array: Mars.

A far cry from last June, when it stood as close as 42 million miles (68 million km) from Earth and shone like a brilliant yellowish-orange beacon in our evening sky, Mars has now receded to 207 million miles (333 million km) away. The Red Planet now shines only about 1/40^th as bright as it did ten months ago. Nonetheless, you should have no trouble identifying it, sitting off to the right and slightly above the crescent Moon, now slightly thicker. (Look again for earthshine.)

And Mars itself is positioned just to the left of the beautiful Pleiades star cluster, which may appear at first glance like a little patch of light. If you have binoculars, be sure to check out the individual stars in this small cluster as well.

Tonight, the Moon will reside close to the planet Saturn, which is bright and easy to see.

If you have a telescope, why not invite some friends and neighbors over this evening? First give them a look at the still lovely (albeit wider) crescent Moon. Then, without revealing what it is, train your scope on that bright yellow-white "star" hovering below and slightly to the right of the Moon and tell them to take a look.

Youll likely hear exclamations of delight, especially if theyre getting their first look at the ringed planet! Interestingly, also on this night, as viewed from the Arctic Ocean, Greenland, northern Russia and northern Europe, including the British Isles, the Moon will appear to occult or hide Saturn at around 20 hours Greenwich Mean Time (the occultation occurs during daylight for North America).

Toward the end of this month, it will become increasingly obvious that Venus, Mars and Saturn are drawing closer to each other.

As the sky darkens this evening, take note of Jupiter shining like a brilliant silvery "star" in the constellation of Gemini and sitting below and to the left of a now rather fat crescent Moon. Jupiter will appear high toward the southwest at dusk and is a prominent evening object all through April.

Even by the end of April Jupiter does not set until after 12:30 a.m. local daylight time.

The planets draw closer together as April progresses. Click here for a map, plus learn how to find elusive Mercury as it peeks above the horizon now.

Editor's Note: Return May 3 for another viewer's guide to the developing planet alignment. Also, on April 30, SPACE.com columnist Joe Rao will lecture on the upcoming planet alignment. The lecture is part of the monthly Celestial Highlights program at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. More information is available here.