See Six Planets Line Up in the Upcoming Planet Parade Tonight

Freshly out of the excitement of the Perseid Meteor shower is a chance to see six planets aligned in the sky at a time. These events, familiarly known as Planet Parade, only occurred or twice a year, the most recent in February, presenting the seven planets of our solar system at the same time. The next one will showcase six of our nearest celestial neighbors, and the event begins on Tuesday.

The six planets sharing the sky will be Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. Mars will be technically there at the beginning of the night, but it dives under the horizon just after sunset, it will therefore not be visible when all the others are. Among these, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter will be visible to the naked eye, while the others will need powerful twins or, preferably, a telescope.

Even if they are distributed in the eastern and southern sky, the planets associate with it, which makes many of them quite easy to find if you know what to look for. From east to west, this is where everyone will be.

• Mercury – Eastern sky near the constellation of cancer. It will jump on the horizon just before sunrise, you will therefore have a limited time to see it before the sun rises and you obfing it.
• Venus – at the lower tip of the constellation of Gemini in the eastern sky, a few hours before sunrise.
• Jupiter – will be near Venus, also in the constellation of Gemini. It increases about an hour before Venus did it.
• Uranus – will be near the upper tip of the bull, up after midnight. This will require a certain magnification. If you see Pleiades, a group of stars at the upper tip of the bull, you went too far.
• Saturn and Neptune – These two are right next to each other and will be seated between the fish and the Constellations in the southern sky. Neptune will be closer to fish while Saturn will be closer to Cetus.

Since it takes a long time for the planets to move in the night sky, August 20 is the starting point, and it will cross the rest of the month. Once September strikes, Mercury will be too close to the sun, which obscured it. From that moment, there will be a parade of five planets for a while until Venus sink under the horizon in early October. So, in all, you will have a chance to see at least five planets for more than a month.

Will the planet parade be visible from my region?

Yes. We have checked the Stellarium sky map from various places across the country, and everything that is applicable will be applicable everywhere in the continental United States. According to Starwalk, the parade will also be visible in other parts of the world after the following dates for about the same time (one to two weeks).

• Abu Dhabi – August 9
• Athens, Beijing, Berlin, Tokyo and London – August 10
• Mumbai and Hong Kong – August 11
• Reykjavik, São Paulo and Sydney – August 12

The planets will move according to the date, however. The above locations are where they will be around August 20, but if you are looking for a week later, they will be in the same general area, but will move to a slightly different part of the sky.

Will I need special equipment?

Yes. Neptune and Uranus, in particular, will require a kind of magnification to see. We recommend a telescope, but powerful binoculars can work if the sky is quite dark. Saturn is also difficult to see without magnification, so you will also want it for that. Jupiter, Venus and Mercury should be visible alone with the naked eye.

We also recommend that you make a trip to the country, because the light pollution of the suburbs and cities can make even more difficult to see Neptune and Uranus. The moon will also be out, which could make Venus, Jupiter and Mercury more difficult to see. Other factors such as weather can also make them more difficult to see them all. If you are lucky, you can also see some filming stars at the end of the Perseids.