Six planets will appear to cluster together in the evening sky at the end of February in what astronomers call a planetary parade, and most of them will be visible to the naked eye.
The celestial event happens when multiple planets appear close together from Earth’s perspective. They are not actually lined up in a straight row in space, but they do gather on one side of the sun, creating the illusion of alignment.
Sara Mazrouei, an educational developer and planetary scientist at Humber Polytechnic, says these alignments are not once-in-a-lifetime events, but seeing a larger group of planets at once is not very common.
“I wouldn’t say it’s very rare or super uncommon … but it is fairly uncommon, especially when you get to see more planets at a time,” she said in an interview with CTVNews.ca. “Sometimes we have a planetary alignment where you can see three or four planets in the same line, but sometimes you can see more, and this time we’ve got more planets.”
This time, six planets will be visible in the sky. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn can be seen without special equipment, while Uranus and Neptune will require binoculars or a telescope.
When can Canadians see it?
Mazrouei says the peak viewing date will be Feb. 28, and what makes this alignment stand out is that it happens in the evening rather than before dawn.
“A lot of the times they happen in the early mornings, which might be harder for folks to get up and see, but this one happens in the evening, and the best time is to go out about 30 to 60 minutes after sunset,” she said.
Cloud cover could interfere, particularly in Canada’s winter months, but there is some flexibility around the peak date.
“In Canada, we might get a cloudy night, it might be overcast, so the first thing you want is clear skies,” Mazrouei said. “I would say even from Feb. 27 to early March, you’d be able to see these planets. The peak is Feb 28. But if you don’t get clear skies on the 28th, don’t panic. You might be able to have a little bit of a wiggle room before or after.”
Will you be able to tell them apart?
Some of the planets will sit low near the horizon, particularly Saturn and Mercury, while Jupiter will appear higher in the sky.
“We won’t be able to tell them apart just by looking,” Mazrouei said. “Certain ones will be closer to where the sun would be setting or rising, so closer to the horizon.”
Mazrouei says there is a simple way to distinguish planets from stars.
“I always say, it goes back to that nursery rhyme of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’ If it’s twinkling, it’s a star. If it doesn’t twinkle, then it’s a planet and that’s because stars have light of their own, so as they come through the Earth’s atmosphere, they get refracted and it gives that twinkling effects, whereas planets are just refracting the sun’s light, so they would just appear to be very solidly bright.”
Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are expected to be among the brightest objects in the sky.
“(They can even be) brighter than the stars,” Mazrouei said. “After the moon, Venus will actually be the brightest, then Jupiter, then Saturn.”
For those unsure of what they’re seeing, she suggests using one of the many free sky-viewing smartphone apps that identify celestial objects when users point their device at the sky.