{"id":282455,"date":"2026-02-13T16:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/282455\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T16:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:17:07","slug":"a-rare-six-planet-parade-is-happening-and-its-at-a-normal-hour-for-once","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/282455\/","title":{"rendered":"A Rare Six-Planet Parade Is Happening, And It\u2019s at a Normal Hour for Once"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six planets will form a rare planetary parade in the night sky throughout February. They will appear grouped across the sky in what astronomers describe as a planetary alignment.<\/p>\n

The phenomenon offers skywatchers a chance to observe multiple worlds at once, a configuration that does not occur every month. A planetary parade occurs when at least four or five planets are visible together from Earth. This month\u2019s event meets that threshold, with six planets appearing in close visual alignment.<\/p>\n

Four Planets Visible To The Naked Eye<\/p>\n

Planetary parades<\/a> occur because each planet follows its own orbital path around the Sun, yet these paths lie in approximately the same plane. When several planets occupy positions on the same side of the Sun, they can appear aligned in Earth\u2019s sky.<\/p>\n

\"VisualVisual representation of six planets aligned from Earth\u2019s viewpoint. Credit: Vito Technology, Inc.<\/p>\n

According to NASA<\/a>, the effect is purely visual. Although the planets seem close together, they remain vastly distant from one another. Their apparent alignment is the result of orbital geometry rather than physical proximity.<\/p>\n

Rare, Yet Not Without Precedent<\/p>\n

Similar events have taken place before. On 27 February 2025, seven planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, aligned in a display that will not recur until 2040. As The Guardian<\/a> reported, Greg Brown<\/a>, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said that smaller groupings of three to five planets are relatively common. <\/p>\n

\u201cGroups of three, four or even five planets being visible aren\u2019t uncommon, regularly appearing throughout each year \u2026 But the more planets are involved, the more things need to be aligned to be visible at once. This makes full seven-planet parades fairly rare.\u201d<\/p>\n

When And How To Observe The February Alignment<\/p>\n

As noted by Star Walk<\/a>, the six-planet parade will be most impressive on 28 February, when the planets appear most tightly grouped in the evening sky. Multi-planet viewing opportunities can last from weeks to more than a month, as planetary motion is gradual.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the planetary alignment on February 28,\u00a0six planets\u00a0will be visible in the evening sky, but\u00a0not all of them will be equally easy to spot. Some shine brightly, while others are fainter and require binoculars or a telescope\u201d, as reported by the same source.<\/p>\n

Four planets: Mercury<\/a>, Venus<\/a>, Mars <\/a>and Jupiter<\/a>, will be visible to the naked eye. Uranus and Neptune will require binoculars or a telescope. Mercury may be harder to spot because of its low position near the horizon. The optimal viewing time is about 30 minutes after local sunset. The source recommends looking low in the western sky with a clear, unobstructed horizon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six planets will form a rare planetary parade in the night sky throughout February. They will appear grouped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-282455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}