Exact date and time five planets might be visible with the naked eye
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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. Some people say that good things only happen ‘when the stars align’. Until that happens, the best the universe can offer is aligning planets, we’re afraid.
![[Planets Will Align in the Sky Every Night of January?Here's How to See the Display What?s Up: January 2025 Skywatching Tips from NASA]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_235267438-fe5f.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Throughout January, four planets will line up in the night sky and be simultaneously visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere. Our celestial neighbours Venus and Mars as well as big brothers Saturn and Jupiter will make up the fab four, according to Nasa.
![[Venus and the Moon as seen from Whitley Bay in North Tyneside. Picture date: Friday January 3, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_234854635-64a0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Admission to this dance is free, of course. But if you have a telescope, the space agency says you can also spot Uranus and Neptune getting involved in this planetary performance this month. Look up just after the sun sets and you’ll see Venus and Saturn in the southwest for a few hours, shining so brightly you might mistake them for aeroplane lights.
Or, you know, stars. Those other lights in the night sky you can most days. Jupiter, meanwhile, will glisten just above and the red planet to the east. And, on one day, Uranus might be just bright enough that five planets will be visible when you crane your neck up.
Despite the name, a planetary alignment isn’t when the planets get in a row, it’s when a fair few gather on one side of the Sun. A planetary parade, meanwhile, describes them all being visible in the sky. The best day and time to see this four-planet parade is just after sunset until 9pm on January 21, according to the Royal Museums Greenwich.
