How to Watch the Rare Planet Parade Twinkle Across the Night Sky

Stargazers are in for a treat as six planets will appear aligned together in the night sky, decorating our views of the cosmos for the rest of January and into February.

Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will all be visible side by side, forming a line across the sky, while Mercury will unfortunately be a no-show. The rare planetary alignment can be enjoyed in the coming weeks, with most of the planets in the solar system appearing as a bright twinkling to the naked eye, according to NASA.

The six planets only appear aligned from our point of view from Earth, a bit of a cosmic optical illusion since each follows a very varied elliptical path around the Sun. Their alignment in the night sky, however, depends on the orbit and position of each planet as seen from Earth.

While two or three planets lined up next to each other in the night sky is quite common, seeing four or five planets all at once is a rare occasion. “These multiple-planet viewing opportunities aren’t super rare, but they don’t happen every year, so it’s worth checking,” NASA wrote.

How to see the parade of the planet

Since the beginning of January, the planets were approaching each other. Venus and Saturn came within a finger’s breadth of each other in our view of the night sky this week in a double planetary conjunction. In reality, the two planets are hundreds of millions of kilometers apart. Mars, meanwhile, is in opposition, meaning it is directly opposite the Sun from Earth and will shine brightly all night throughout the month.

Venus and Saturn will appear in the southwestern sky in the early hours after dark, while Jupiter will shine high above, and Mars will appear in the eastern sky, according to NASA. All four planets can be spotted with the naked eye, but you’ll need a telescope or high-powered binoculars to see Uranus and Neptune.

The planetary alignment will likely be most visible about 30 to 60 minutes before sunrise. It is best viewed from a high, dark vantage point with little or no light pollution and an unobscured view of the sky.

The line formed by the planets in the night sky is called the ecliptic, and represents the plane of the solar system in which the planets orbit the sun, according to NASA. This is a rare opportunity to marvel at the scale of the solar system that houses our planet, and see the mighty planets twinkling in the sky.

Don’t worry if you can’t see the show for yourself – the Europa Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 is host a special live feed of the conjunction. Streaming begins at 12:30 pm ET (5:30 pm UTC) on January 25.