Planets on Parade? - Is There Really a Planetary Alignment?

Venus, Mars, and Jupiter all "lined-up" in the sky. In this image, Jupiter is the bright one towards the top, Venus the lower bright one, and Mars is the red dim one above Venus. Image Credit: K. Hendershot, NPS

Social media is buzzing with news of a so-called “planet parade” on Saturday, February 28. But before you get your hopes up, let’s separate the astronomical reality from the viral hype.

Unfortunately, many science outlets prioritize clicks over context, leading to sensationalized headlines. While these outlets aren't technically lying, they are omitting the details. February 28 will provide us with a unique opportunity to view six of the seven non-Earth planets simultaneously. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will all be out in the night sky at the same time. While this is an interesting occurrence, it’s unfortunately not the magical event these sources make it out to be.

Seeing The Planets

Right off the bat, it’s worth mentioning that Uranus and Neptune aren’t technically visible at all, at least to the naked eye. These two planets are too far and too dim to be seen without a telescope. So, that already reduces the number of truly visible planets to four.

Then there’s Mercury and Venus, which are going to be difficult to actually see. As both planets are closer to the Sun than Earth, they’ll always be near the Sun in our sky. As such, the only possible times to see these planets are shortly before sunrise or after sunset. This also means they’ll only ever be visible near the horizon. If there are hills or trees on your horizon, you may not even be able to see them in the first place. Venus, being both the closest planet to Earth and highly reflective, is extremely bright. It’s actually the third brightest object in our sky, after only the Sun and Moon. Additionally, Saturn is currently approaching solar conjunction, meaning it just so happens to be close to the Sun in the sky as well, putting it in a similar situation to Mercury and Venus.

The "Alignment"

Many social media outlets claim this to be a “once-in-a-lifetime event,” but you might recall the same claims about the same event being made last year. In fact, exactly a year prior, February 28, 2025, the exact same claims of a “once-in-a-lifetime" planet parade were made, just with Mercury swapped for Mars. This year’s isn’t even the last one. We’ll see a five-planet “parade” in October 2028 and then again in February 2034. While not abundant, these events aren’t exactly as rare as claimed.

In fact, planets lining up in the night sky is completely normal and expected. The planets of our Solar System all orbit around the Sun in the same plane. They move around the Sun like runners on the same track, but each in a different lane. That means that from Earth, the planets, as well as the Sun and Moon, will only ever be spotted across a single line in the sky. We call this line the ecliptic. Each planet orbits around the Sun at a different rate. This means that they’ll appear in a somewhat random part of the ecliptic line compared to one another, but if more than one happens to be visible on any given night, then they’ll appear in a line. By sheer odds, every once in a while, a large portion of the planets will be visible on the same night.

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t some grand “planetary alignment” that some sources make it out to be. The line in our night sky is an illusion of perspective. While we see them in a line, if you zoomed out and looked down on the planets from above the Solar System, you’d see the planets scattered about the Solar System.

Planet Gazing

Despite all that, it’s still a great time to go stargazing and to look for planets right now. Planets, especially when viewed by a telescope, are some of the most interesting things in the night sky to look for, and the more planets out, the more targets you have.

Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn will all appear very bright in the sky when out. You might not be able to tell the difference between them and brighter stars at first. However, there’s one key difference between the two. Stars twinkle, while planets don’t. When you see the light from a star, you’re seeing an object so far away from Earth that it appears in our sky as a single point. The light from that point-source has to travel through our atmosphere for us to see it, and the atmosphere is very turbulent. All that movement of gas causes the light from stars to bend and flicker. That’s why stars twinkle. Planets, on the other hand, are far closer to Earth, so they appear to us as a small disk, rather than a point. This extra size they take up means they’re far more resistant to these distortions, as the bending averages out across their surface, meaning they look like a solid light, rather than a twinkling one.

If you have a telescope, Jupiter and Saturn are the best planets to look at. As gas giants, their massive size means we get a good look at them. When looking at Saturn with a telescope, you’ll even be able to see its famous rings. As for Jupiter, keep an eye out for some little points of light close by on either side of it. You can see up to four of Jupiter’s moons at once. These are the Galilean Moons, Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede. They’re called the Galilean Moons because they were discovered by Galileo when he first looked at Jupiter with his telescope. They were the first objects orbiting another planet ever discovered and were major evidence in the case against geocentricism.

If you are looking to see as many planets as you can at once, then your best bet is to look soon after sunset on February 28. Make sure you have a place to look where the western sky is as unobstructed as possible. The planets visible to the naked eye will begin to appear one-by-one as it gets darker.

Some outlets might be overselling the “planet parade” as a can’t miss event, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care. Just manage your expectations accordingly and enjoy what truly is a relatively rare sight, even if it’s not quite the once-in-a-lifetime experience it’s touted to be.