Superparade of planets in February: when and where to watch a unique phenomenon
22 February 05:20
Starting February 24, five planets will appear in the night sky. On February 28, all seven planets of the Solar System will be visible in the evening sky. Star Walk writes about it, Komersant ukrainskyi reports
“On the evening of February 28, all seven other planets of the solar system will appear simultaneously in the night sky. Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars will line up in a neat row, creating a huge celestial spectacle known as the Great Planetary Alignment,” the researchers said.
In the evening, right after sunset, seven planets – Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars – will line up in a row in the sky. Four of them (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars) will be visible to the naked eye. To observe Uranus and Neptune, you will need binoculars or a small telescope. Saturn will be the most difficult to observe – you will need to know the exact time in your region to see it, as it will be very close to the Sun.
How to observe the phenomenon on February 28
The best period for observing will begin right after sunset.
In Ukraine, the sunset on February 28 will occur at around 17:30-18:00, depending on your region.
The duration of visibility will depend on the height of the planets above the horizon, but for the main planets (Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn) it will be from 18:00 to 20:00. For less bright ones (Uranus, Neptune), you will need a telescope and a dark sky after 20:00.
To find out the exact time of the planets’ rising and setting in your city, you can use the following tools:
- Time and Date (shows the position of the planets for any location).
- Stellarium is a web-based tool that shows the positions of the planets at a given time.
- Mobile apps like Sky Tonight that adapt to your location.
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The following planet parades that will take place in 2025:
- april 17: small morning alignment of Neptune, Mercury, Saturn, and Venus;
- august 10: the great morning alignment of Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn.
During the parade of planets, they all line up in a single line. The planets, along with the Earth, move around the Sun in a single plane called the ecliptic.
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What is a parade of planets?
Sometimes the planets of the solar system are arranged in the starry sky as if in a line, forming a kind of line for human vision. This phenomenon is called a parade of planets.
Any alignment of three to eight planets in the starry sky is considered an astronomical phenomenon. The alignment of five or six planets is called a great parade, and five-planet parades are much more common than six-planet parades.
Seven planets forming a parade at the same time is the rarest phenomenon of all.
This is how the previous parade of planets looked like on January 21, 2025. It was attended by 6 planets.
It should be noted that these parades are not the exact “line” of planets that can be seen in illustrations or diagrams of the solar system. In reality, the planets only appear to be aligned along an imaginary line.
This is because all the planets in the solar system orbit the Sun on a flat plane called the ecliptic. Although the orbits of some planets may be slightly above or below this plane, in general they remain roughly aligned.
This order arises at the stage of star formation. When a young star forms in the center of a cloud of matter, the cloud rotates to form a flat disk. Planets are formed from the remnants of this disk and, unless they are affected by other gravitational forces, remain on the same plane.
