Stargazers can now look up and see a planetary alignment in the night sky, or what some are calling a "planetary parade," throughout January.
It's a dazzling cosmic event involving Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune that can be seen with the naked eye.
“Now, I've heard people talk about how the planets are aligned, well, not really,” explained Utah NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Ambassador Patrick Wiggins. “If you had a really good spaceship and you could shoot yourself way out and above the solar system and look down, they're spread out all over the place.
“But because from our vantage point here on Earth, they appear in orbits, they are in orbits around the Sun and there is kind of a line to it, but only from where we're looking. You go anywhere else in the solar system, and it doesn't look the same way. So the parade of planets, but only sort of.”
What will be visible?
A telescope will be necessary to view part of the planetary parade, as Uranus and Neptune are too dim to be seen with the naked eye. However, the other four planets are bright enough to be spotted when the sun has set.
When and where do you look?
Wiggins says the best time to look is about 45 minutes after sunset and when it's completely dark, especially when it's a clear and cloudless evening. Venus and Saturn are in the southwest, Jupiter is high in the southeast, and Mars is in the east.
Is this cosmic event rare?
According to Wiggins, the planetary event is common and occurs every few years. The planets in our solar system orbit around the sun at different speeds in more or less a flat plane called the ecliptic. The varying orbiting speeds are why several of them can be roughly lined up on the same side of the Sun from the perspective of Earth. Kind of like a slow-motion race, Wiggins said.
Mercury is not visible in this planetary alignment because it is on the opposite side of the sun from the other planets.
How do I know which one is a planet?
Never forget the lullaby ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,’ as you look up into the night sky.
“Stars, twinkle, planets, as a rule, do not,” Wiggins said “So when you see Venus, that very, very bright thing, with Saturn down below it much fainter, they're not going to be twinkling.
If you plan to look up to see the planets stretched across the night sky, Wiggins has one final piece of advice.
“If you're out at night and you're counting the planets, don't forget to count the one that's under your feet. Earth is a planet too.”
