In May 2002, all five bright planets were in the evening sky, however I was only able to capture the four lowest ones in this image of the Taurus area;
Jupiter is off to the upper left in Gemini.  On this date, Venus was magnitude -3.94, Saturn -0.38, Mars +1.64, and Mercury +0.61.  The ecliptic runs
in between Saturn to the south and Mars/Venus to the north.  Compare this pairing of Venus and Mars in Taurus to the same pair in Virgo 6 months from now,
between which Mars will have gone through superior conjunction and Venus inferior conjunction.