Seven planets will be aligned tonight, briefly visible from Earth’s perspective. This rare event won’t happen again until 2040…
AJ Chadha with the Georgia Tech Astronomy Club said five planets can potentially be visible to the naked eye, if you know when and where to view from. Chadha said shortly after sunset, look in the southwest sky.
“You’ll definitely be able to see Mars, Jupiter and Venus. Those will definitely be visible because they’ll still be high up in the sky, as they continue to just ebb away.”
Those three will be the stars of the show. Saturn and Mercury may be a little more difficult to see.
“You’re gonna have to catch really quickly [right around sunset] because they’re gonna be like on the horizon and slowly dipping down, and they’re only gonna be illuminated by the sun as it’s slowly ebbing away. So, it’ll be great if you can have an unobstructed view of the horizon maybe by being like on a rooftop or something or in a higher area.”
And if you have a telescope or a good pair of binoculars, you could see the other remaining two planets.
“Neptune and Uranus are two of the farthest planets from our Earth, and because of that they are really, really dim, especially when you’re living in like a city with light pollution,” Chadha said. “Even using binoculars or a telescope, it can still be hard if the atmosphere is not completely clear and there are clouds. Usually with that you’ll need special equipment”
