Rare ‘planetary parade’ will return to the evening sky this week

A planetary parade is about to bring six of Earth’s neighbors into the night sky at once — but it won’t be easy to see.

If you can find an unobstructed view due west and clear skies on Saturday, Feb. 28, you may see the two inner planets, Venus and Mercury, close to Saturn, with Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter also in the night sky, according to NASA.

The window will be tight, with Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Neptune appearing only briefly after sunset. Venus, Mercury and Saturn should all be visible to the naked eye, though a pair of stargazing binoculars may be helpful. Venus and Mercury will be closest to the horizon during twilight, with Saturn above.

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Neptune will be right next to Saturn, but a 6-inch (15 centimeters) skywatching telescope will be required to get a good view of Neptune (and, in twilight, even that’s unlikely). These four planets will be in the sky about half an hour after sunset and remain so for around 45 minutes.

Once you’ve observed Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Neptune, look high in the south for Jupiter in the constellation Gemini. It will shine very brightly, so it should be easy to find. The three stars of Orion’s Belt will be roughly halfway between the other four planets and Jupiter. The giant planet will also appear as a steady, whitish light that doesn’t twinkle as stars do.

Uranus, the Pleiades and a total lunar eclipse

As a bonus, on Feb. 28, the moon will also be in the night sky alongside another famous star cluster. About 92%-illuminated, the waxing gibbous moon will move close to the Beehive Cluster (also called M44 and NGC 2632), a bright cluster of around 1,000 stars that’s about 577 light-years from the solar system.

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As the planetary parade fades, something arguably more spectacular takes its place: a total lunar eclipse on March 3 as the full “Worm Moon” passes through Earth’s dark shadow. During this event, also dubbed a “blood moon,” the lunar surface will turn a reddish-copper color for 58 minutes, with the best views of the entire eclipse sequence from the western U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii), the Pacific islands, New Zealand, Australia and East Asia.