Have you heard about the “planetary parade?” If you’ve not seen the wild claims about the so-called alignment of six or seven planets in your social media feeds, you soon will. Is it a fact? It’s certainly not a fiction, with NASA as the source for a claim that six planets — Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus — will soon be visible together in the evening sky. The word ‘visible’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting because, unfortunately, only two of those planets will be easily seen, while two are marginal and two require either binoculars, a telescope or a camera and a camera lens. However, if you know what to expect and have the right gear, seeing six planets in one evening will be possible.
February ‘planetary parade’: Using binoculars
Binoculars will be one of the most useful tools for this event. While Jupiter and Venus will be visible to the naked eye, a good pair of stargazing binoculars will dramatically improve your chances of seeing Mercury and Saturn in bright twilight, as well as glimpsing Uranus and the Pleiades open cluster once it’s dark. They’ll also be useful for observing the moon and the nearby Beehive Cluster.
Products with 7x to 10x magnification and either a 42mm or 50mm aperture are ideal for astronomy, providing a wide field of view yet usable for sweeping across the western horizon to pick out dimmer objects near the glow of a recent sunset. About 7×42, 7×50, 10×42 or 10×50 products — or anything similar — balance brightness, magnification and stability, allowing you to get a good view of the fainter members of the “planetary parade.”
Keeping to a maximum 50mm aperture means you’ll be able to keep the binoculars steady enough to identify planets. However, if you need a helping hand, consider image-stabilized binoculars, which use clever engineering and electronics to reduce hand shake, helping to reveal the subtle light of faint planets and making it easier to “star hop” from one object to another.
February ‘planetary parade’: Using a telescope
A telescope becomes particularly useful for this “planetary parade” if you want to stand any chance of seeing Neptune. It will also be incredibly useful for Uranus and Saturn, give you a great view of Jupiter and its moons, and offer a stunning close-up of the moon’s craters.
For planetary observing, refractor telescopes, Dobsonians, Schmidt-Cassegrains, and Maksutov-Cassegrains boast long focal lengths and can accommodate eyepieces that offer high magnifications.
A six-inch telescope will give you a reasonable chance of glimpsing Saturn, though twilight conditions will make that challenging. That’s even more the case for Neptune, which will require excellent conditions. The same telescope will likely reveal Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s cloud bands, transforming them from bright dots into distinct worlds.
Any smaller telescope will be useful for Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter and the moon. The larger the telescope’s aperture, the more light it gathers and the higher the magnification it allows, revealing more detail.
Smart telescopes, which automatically locate and track objects, will simplify the hunt for Uranus and Neptune. By removing guesswork, they can quickly position the instrument and even stack digital images to enhance faint targets — though don’t expect great images.
How to take photos of the ‘planetary parade’
Photographing this planetary gathering requires planning and realistic expectations. The planets will be clustered low in the west-southwest for a short time, with Jupiter halfway between the southern horizon and overhead. That’s a huge swathe of the night sky. Add the fact that the sky will be fairly bright in the west around the sunset point, and imaging this event will be challenging. If your goal is nevertheless a wide-angle landscape image showing multiple planets at once, use a manual mirrorless camera or DSLR with a wide-angle lens (about 14mm) mounted on a sturdy tripod.
For bright planets like Venus and Jupiter, a smartphone attached to a telescope using an adapter can capture basic images — though results will be very basic. The same is true for smart telescopes, which can only capture rudimentary images of planets (most are designed for faint deep-sky objects).
More advanced observers can use dedicated astronomy cameras attached directly to telescopes. These “astrocams” record high-frame-rate video, which can later be stacked and processed to reveal planetary detail. That will work well on Jupiter and Uranus in darkness, and to some extent on Saturn and Neptune, but the latter are not well positioned for astrophotography.
The late-February parade may require luck, patience and equipment, but for those willing to step outside just after sunset, it offers a rewarding sweep of the solar system in a single evening sky. Keep expectations low and hopes high — then prepare for the total lunar eclipse on March 3.
‘Planetary parade’ or ‘planetary alignment’?
What’s about to happen is more a matter of geometry and timing than a perfectly straight lineup in space. The planets orbit the sun in roughly the same flat plane, known as the ecliptic. That’s the same path the sun traces across our daytime sky, and the route followed closely by the moon and planets at night. Since they share the same orbital plane, planets always appear along a similar arc in the sky. When several happen to be positioned on the same side of the sun as Earth, they can become visible in the same general stretch of sky. That’s what’s happening this month, but planets are not forming a straight line in space; they’re just visible at the same time from our vantage point on Earth. Often mistakenly called a “planetary parade,” it’s much more accurate to describe it as a “planetary alignment.”
Regardless of the nomenclature or the chances of seeing every celestial body promised in headlines, it’s a great opportunity to get skywatching.
When and where to see February’s ‘planetary parade’
The key date is Saturday, Feb. 28. According to NASA, that evening offers one of the best opportunities to attempt the full sweep. It’s not the only night to have a look, and whatever night you try, timing and location will be critical.
The most important thing to remember is that this “planetary parade” will not be as easy as in February 2025, when Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were seen stretching across the sky. This time, not all will be visible to the naked eye, and some will be extremely challenging to detect.
The window is tight. About 30 minutes after sunset, Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Neptune will briefly share the twilight sky. They will remain visible for roughly 45 minutes before slipping below the horizon. Where they appear, and for how long, will entirely depend on your location, so do check Stellarium Web or TimeAndDate’s Night Sky Tonight for rise and set times.
Wherever you observe from, you’ll certainly need clear skies and an unobstructed view due west. Light pollution has little impact on planetary visibility (save, perhaps, for Uranus) because planets are much closer and brighter than stars. However, a clear western horizon, free of buildings or trees, is critical. Start low on the western horizon and go through the planets one by one:
Venus
Optics required: Naked eye
The steady light of bright Venus — shining at magnitude -3.8 — will make it the easiest planet to spot low in the west (a negative magnitude means it’s brighter, a positive magnitude means it’s fainter).
Mercury
Optics required: Binoculars
A few degrees above Venus will be Mercury, but it will be many times dimmer at magnitude 2. It’s still potentially visible to the naked eye under good atmospheric conditions, though it’s far more likely to appear only in binoculars. However, it was at its greatest elongation from the sun as seen from Earth on Feb. 19, so it will be getting lower in the sky each evening. The best advice is to get a view of it as close to Feb. 19 as possible.
Saturn
Optics required: Binoculars
Slightly higher than both inner planets will be Saturn, which at magnitude 1 may require careful scanning in the bright twilight with a pair of binoculars. It’s on the wane, about to drift into the sun’s glare, so it’s far from its best.
Neptune
Optics required: Six-inch telescope e.g. Celestron Nexstar 6SE
Neptune, which will sit very close to Saturn, will be hugely challenging. If you’ve never seen Neptune, that likely won’t change during this “planetary parade” because it’s going to be incredibly hard to find in the twilight glare, even with a six-inch telescope. It shines at magnitude 8.
Jupiter
Optics required: Naked eye
Now the good news — Jupiter will be easy to find. Blazing brightly in the constellation Gemini at magnitude -2.3, the giant planet will be high in the south and easy to see. It will shine intensely and steadily, and if you do have binoculars or a telescope, train them on Jupiter to see its four Galilean moons strung out around it — Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede.
Uranus
Optics required: Binoculars or a small telescope
The sixth planet, Uranus, lies beneath the Pleiades star cluster (also known as M45) in the constellation Taurus. It shines at magnitude 5.7. To find it, locate Orion’s Belt and follow that line upward toward the Pleiades. Uranus will be just below, appearing as a faint, greenish point through binoculars or a small telescope. Since it will remain “up” long after the cluster of planets low in the west has set, you can wait until it’s properly dark to look for Uranus.
The moon and M44
Optics required: Naked eye and binoculars
Adding to the scene on Feb. 28 will be a very bright waxing gibbous moon, just a few days from full, shining near the Beehive Cluster (also called M44), which will be visible with binoculars.
