A rare planetary alignment is gracing the skies, offering the chance for stargazers and amateur astronomers to view up to six of the solar system’s planets at once. From now until late February, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will align. Four can be viewed with the naked eye, while the full six can be seen via telescope. “In the early evenings you will be able to see all the planets except Mercury,” said Jeremy Heyl, a professor of astronomy at the University of British Columbia. Venus, according to Heyl, will be very bright and dazzlingly white. Those looking for it through binoculars or a telescope should see a “chubby crescent shape” in the sky. Just to the left of Venus will sit Saturn, easy to see even within the city, but much fainter than Venus. Neptune will sit around four times further to the left from Venus than Saturn, and will show as a beige mark in the sky. Neptune and Uranus will likely be too faint to see with the naked eye, but if you know where to look, they should be spotted with the help of a telescope, promised Heyl. “Both planets are in a part of the sky where there aren’t very many bright stars,” he said, so it might take some “wandering” to locate them. Neptune will sit even further to the left, about four times further from Venus than Saturn, and will be blue-green in colour. Uranus will be blue, brighter than Neptune, and will be found near the Pleaides star cluster but sufficiently far away from it that “you will have to hunt for it,” he said. Jupiter will be beige and will shine very bright in the west. Mars, also very bright and notable in its red hue, will sit west to the left of Jupiter. While the viewing window is lengthy and lasting until around Feb. 20, the optimum time to view the celestial phenomenon is right now, says Heyl. Not only are the skies particularly clear for mid-January, but the planets are currently lingering later, too. “As we progress towards February, everything will set a little bit earlier,” he said. “When Saturn and Venus get very low in the sky, especially if you’re going to look at it with a telescope, they become more blurry. Light from Saturn, which is a beautiful thing to see through the telescope, becomes more murky, shaky.” One way to tell a planet from a star, advised Heyl, is that the stars twinkle and planets do not. The planets won’t move, either, so if the bright blip is travelling across the night sky, it’s likely a plane or a satellite. To truly reap the most out of the experience Heyl recommends using a camera and zooming in on photos to view the planets in detail, or to leave a video camera running, rather than taking multiple photos, so the focus can be played around with while photos are being taken. Cameras or telescopes, however, are not required to enjoy the experience, he said. “All you really need to enjoy this is your eyes, and a cup of hot cocoa, because it’s cold out there.” If the alignment is missed this time around, Heyl said there will be another chance to observe it in this lifetime – but it likely won’t be until 2040.
