How to see six planets lining up in ‘parade’ over Britain’s skies
On Tuesday, six planets will ‘line up’ in the skies over Britain in a ‘planetary alignment’ - being joined by a seventh planet next month.
Six planets will ‘line up’ in a parade over the UK tonight in a spectacular ‘planetary alignment’.
The parade will see Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn line up in the sky, along with Uranus and Neptune, while next month people in the UK will be able to see a rarer line-up of seven planets.
The BBC’s Sky at Night magazine said: “There is an imaginary line that the path of the Sun traces across the daytime sky, and this is known as the 'ecliptic'.
“The ecliptic is due to the fact that Earth and all the other Solar System planets formed out of the same flat disc of gas and dust that once surrounded our infant Sun.
“This means the planets in the Solar System all occupy roughly the same orbital plane – Earth included – and therefore all more or less follow the line of the ecliptic in the sky. So, when multiple planets are visible in the sky, they'll located be roughly along this line.”
So how much of this spectacular event will we be able to see from Earth?
What can you see with the naked eye?
Weather permitting, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn should be visible with the naked eye, while Uranus and Neptune will be visible through telescopes.
The Met Office says that northern parts of England and Scotland should have clear skies, which make it possible to see the alignment.
6 planets align in our night sky from tomorrow evening 🪐
Just after sunset, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Venus and Saturn will be visible from east to west in the night sky 👀
Here are your viewing chances (you will need a telescope to see Uranus and Neptune!) 👇 pic.twitter.com/e8d1qQUEv7— Met Office (@metoffice) January 20, 2025
Royal Observatories Greenwich said: “Saturn, Venus and Jupiter will be easily visible as bright white points of light, and Mars as an orange dot, but Uranus is quite faint and will require very dark skies or a telescope to attempt to see it.
“Neptune meanwhile will require a fairly powerful telescope to observe.”
What is the best time to watch?
The best time to see the alignment is just after sunset on 21 January, according to the Met Office. But the planets will also remain visible in the early hours of the evening.
Experts advise finding a dark area, and using a sky mapper app to track down the planets.
How rare is this?
Planetary alignments are relatively common, but alignments of five or six planets are rarer, and alignments of seven planets even more so.
Alignments of all eight planets occur once every 180 years or so.
When will the next planetary alignment happen?
On the evening of 28 February this year, seven planets - Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars - will line up in a neat row, known as a ‘great planetary alignment'.
