A rare parade of planets will light up the night sky throughout January.
Six planets will be in alignment for the rest of the month – four of which will be visible with the naked eye, Preston Dyches, public engagement specialist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and host of NASA’s “What’s Up” skywatching series, told ABC News.
Venus and Saturn will be in conjunction, meaning they’ll appear closest to each other, on Friday and Saturday, Dyches said. Both will be visible with the unaided eye in the first couple of hours after dark while looking west, according to Space.com.
While looking south, a “brilliant” Jupiter will be shining brightly, Dyches said, while to the east will be Mars, appearing not quite as bright as Jupiter and more reddish in color.
All four of these planets should be visible through the rest of the month, as long as light from the moon doesn’t overwhelm the view, Dyches said. But the brightest phases of the moon have already passed for the month of January, meaning it’s currently waning and will be in the third quarter on Tuesday and a new moon on Jan. 29.
Two other planets will be visible with a telescope, Dyches said. Uranus is higher in the sky, next to Jupiter, and Neptune is to the west, just above Saturn and Venus, he said, adding that a self-guided telescope – that is, a telescope controlled by a computer – can help stargazers locate each planet.
“Uranus and Neptune, two very distant ice giant planets out in our solar system, are also there in the sky,” Dyches said. “But they are very faint.”
Anyone with a telescope will also benefit when viewing Saturn because its signature rings will be clear when magnified, according to Space.com.
Conjunctions of three or more planets don’t happen annually, like other celestial events such as meteor showers, Dyches said, noting that the sky has a “cyclical nature” due to the movement of stars and planets.
Venus will be visible through April 1, according to Space.com. It will be brightest from Jan. 28 through Feb. 27 and will reach its greatest brilliancy on Feb. 14.
Saturn will appear as a yellowish-white body with moderate brightness, according to Space.com. It will be within the boundaries of Aquarius for the rest of the year, and it will be visible with a telescope in the evenings until Feb. 23 and in the mornings from March 30 to Sept. 20. On Sept. 21, it will be visible in the evenings again.
Jupiter will shine with a silver-white luster in the evenings until June 3 and in the mornings from July 16 to Dec. 31.
Mars will also be in opposition for the rest of the month while it’s visible, meaning it will be directly on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun, something that happens roughly every two years. It’s in the east as night falls and in the southwest at dawn, according to NASA.
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