Sky Lights

This month it won't be easy to distinguish real sky drama from hype. A so-called grand conjunction, in which Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn line up with the Earth, sun, and moon, has generated a New Age buzz with its own cryptic warning label: Beware 5-5-00. On that date, doomsayers claim, gravitational forces reverberating throughout the solar system will trigger earthquakes and volcanoes on Earth.