Comet Siding Spring Animation

NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover has captured a dust devil spinning across the barren floor of Endeavour Crater, an impact basin the robot has explored since 2011 in the mission’s long-lived second act.

NASA has not heard from the Opportunity Mars rover since it fell silent 10 June as a global dust storm blanketed the red planet, but engineers are hopeful the long-lived robot will wake up soon as the storm abates.

If the current alignment of all the bright naked-eye planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — in the morning sky has prompted you to speculate where in the world might be the best place to view the spectacle, here’s a guide to using our upgraded interactive Almanac to help you find out.