‘Planetary parade’ to be visible in days as six planets align in the sky – exact time you can see dazzling display
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MARS, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Venus are set to align in the sky next week in a six-strong 'planetary parade'. All the planets in our solar system, except Mercury and Earth, will move into a large arc that just fits into your eye's field of view.
![[The planets align every so often as they move in their individual orbits]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ac-07_01-planetary-parade-graphic.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
"That means we can just about see all planets without turning our head with Mars in the left corner of our eye and Saturn with Venus in the right," Dr Dan Brown, an astronomy expert here at Nottingham Trent University, told The Sun. While the others will be joined by Uranus and Neptune, these two planets will not - and will never - be visible to the naked eye as they are too far away.
The four visible planets, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus, will be strung across the evening sky on 18 January where you should be able to see them from 5pm to 9pm local time. Although, the "best conditions" will be at 6pm, with Mars, Venus, and Saturn roughly 20 degrees above the horizon, according to Dr Brown.
Three planets will be particularly easy to find. "Mars, Venus and Jupiter will be the brightest objects in the entire sky," Dr Brown explained. "Saturn more like the 10th brightest, but still easy to find given its proximity to Venus.". The planets align every so often as they move in their individual orbits.
In February, another planetary parade is expected to occur, where Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Mercury will be in an alignment visible to the naked eye. Dr Brown said: "Mercury will join the group of visible planets in February and result on 24 February when it passes Saturn in a slightly closer line up of still 117 degrees.".
