Planet parade: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury make for a skywatching spectacle
Like a celestial parade across the cosmos, five bright planets are lighting up the night sky and visible with the naked eye all February long — with two other planets also detectable for skywatchers with special equipment.
Like a celestial parade across the cosmos, five bright planets are lighting up the night sky and visible with the naked eye all February long — with two other planets also detectable for skywatchers with special equipment.
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury are all currently visible with the naked eye for skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere. Uranus and Neptune are also part of this month’s planetary showcase but are harder to spot because they require binoculars or a telescope to see.
The bright planets can all be seen through the end of February, but toward the later part of the month, the positions of some planets lower on the horizon will make them more difficult to detect. As such, skywatchers should pick a clear night in the coming weeks to enjoy the celestial spectacle, according to Jackie Faherty, an astronomer and senior research scientist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
“I like to tell people that the nighttime sky is the original Netflix — it’s what people used to do to entertain themselves,” she said.
The best time to see the planets is after dusk on a clear night in a spot that is away from city lights and other forms of light pollution.
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