A rare celestial event, where six planets will align in the night sky and be seen with the naked eye, will unfold in the next few days. Known as the planetary parade, it offers a stellar experience to space enthusiasts and stargazers, as per NASA. And it doesn’t require a telescope, giving skywatchers the chance to witness a spectacular planetary gathering of Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Planetary parade: When and where to watch

Astronomy enthusiasts will get a chance to see the planetary parade on January 21 and January 25, when four planets – Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn – will be visible to the naked eye just after the sun goes down, while Uranus and Neptune will require a telescope. The best time to witness the stellar show is 45 minutes after sunset.

Venus and Saturn will light up the southwest, Jupiter will take centre stage in the southeast, and Mars will appear in the east. The planetary display will last about three hours, with Venus and Saturn eventually setting in the west. For the best viewing experience, find a dark location away from city lights and look towards the southwestern horizon.

How to identify the planets

Venus will be the most visible and brightest of these planets. Mars will look like a bright lightbulb because of its red colour. Saturn will appear as a tiny dot in the western sky, while Jupiter will also be similar but in the southern sky.

Uranus and Neptune can be seen as tiny, bright dots but will not be visible to the naked eye due to their distance from the other planets in the alignment.

When can you see Mercury?

Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, won’t be a part of the celestial lineup. However, by February end, one can witness Mercury joining the planetary parade. The planetary alignment will be at its peak from February 28 to March 12, offering the best view of the celestial event.

Hold your horses, astronomy enthusiasts! Before you get too excited about the upcoming planetary alignment on June 3, experts warn it may not be as spectacular as some might think. While six planets, including Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune, and Saturn, will indeed align along the ecliptic path in the early morning hours of June 3rd, not all will be visible to the naked eye from Earth, ABC News reported. 

“People who plan to rise early and step outside on June 3 expecting to see the bloated disk of Jupiter or the rings of Saturn in a single glance will be, at the very least, quite disappointed,” prominent broadcast meteorologist Joe Rao wrote in a recent debunking column for Space.

Well, experts from NASA and Astronomers Without Borders said that June 3 is not the best time to see the planetary parade. That’s because Uranus, Mercury and Jupiter will be swallowed up by the sun’s light and be too close to the horizon to be visible. 

However, the experts are saying that skygazers should wait until the end of the month to see the planetary alignment.

“To me, the closest thing to a planet parade is June 29th, when you’ll have Saturn, the third-quarter Moon, Mars, and Jupiter arrayed across the sky at dawn,” Preston Dyches, a public engagement specialist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory told USA TODAY.

NASA in a release said, “Some online sources have shared excitement about a “parade of planets” visible in the morning sky in early June (June 3 in particular). In reality, only two of the six planets supposedly on display (Saturn and Mars) will be visible. In early June, Jupiter and Mercury will be at or below the horizon in the morning twilight and not visible; Uranus and Neptune are far too faint to see without a telescope, especially as the morning sky brightens.”

Joe Rao wrote that skywatchers can expect an equipment-free view of Mars on June 3 around 4:00 a.m. ET, which will be shining in a “relatively bright orange light.”

Meanwhile, in 2023, the five-planet alignment of Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars occurred on March 28.

“You’re worrying that planetary alignments are rare, but honestly, we get one every couple of years,” Bill Cooke, who heads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, told “Good Morning America” at the time.