Topline<\/p>\n
Skywatchers will be treated to a rare spectacle on Saturday, Aug. 23, as six planets line up in a pre-dawn parade. Also called a planetary alignment, the display will feature Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune. Four of these planets \u2014 Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury \u2014 will be visible to the naked eye, with Mercury currently relatively easy to see in the east before sunrise.<\/p>\n
Six planets in a rare “planet parade” before sunrise \u2014 how to see Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Uranus, and Neptune in the morning sky. (Artist’s impression does not represent how the “planet parade” will look!)<\/p>\n
gettyKey Facts<\/p>\n
Best seen at least an hour before sunrise, the most dazzling members of the parade will be Venus and Jupiter in the eastern sky. They will be about 11 degrees apart \u2014 about the width of an outstretched fist \u2014 according to astronomy website When The Curves Line Up<\/a>. <\/p>\n Saturn, though not as bright as Venus and Jupiter, will be low in the west-southwest before dawn. The moon is not in the sky during the parade this week.<\/p>\n Mercury, the smallest and hardest to find of the group, will appear just above the horizon about 45 minutes before sunrise. Find an unobstructed view toward the east for the best chance of spotting it.<\/p>\n The \u201cSwift Planet\u201d is not easy to see because it appears below 10 degrees altitude, according to NASA<\/a>. It will remain easily visible until around Aug. 26, after which it will sink into the eastern horizon. Seeing the outer ice giants Uranus and Neptune requires binoculars or a telescope.<\/p>\n Planet-rise and planet-set times vary by location, so use an online planetarium<\/a> to get exact times. The following \u201cplanet parade\u201d will happen during October 2028, when five planets will be visible together, again before sunrise. <\/p>\n Looking east 45 minutes before sunrise from mid-northern latitudes on August 23, 2025, three planet are visible, with Saturn bright in the southern sky.<\/p>\n StellariumSaturday’s \u2018black Moon\u2019 Explained<\/p>\n This \u201cplanet parade\u201d will take place at the end of a night ideal for stargazing. At 2:06 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 23, the moon will reach its new phase, remaining invisible as it passes roughly between Earth and the sun. It\u2019s called a \u201cblack moon\u201d by astronomers because it\u2019s the third of four new moons in a single astronomical season. <\/p>\n The Night Sky Around The ‘planet Parade’<\/p>\n On the left of Venus and Jupiter will be the stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini, while to the lower-right of the planets will be Betelgeuse in the Orion constellation and, beyond it, the unmistakable three bright stars in a vertical Orion’s Belt \u2014 Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. <\/p>\n The ‘Blood Worm Moon’ total lunar eclipse is seen above Austin, TX on March 14, 2025. (Photo by Rick Kern\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Getty ImagesWhat\u2019s Next In The Night Sky<\/p>\n Following this week’s much-anticipated \u201cplanet parade,\u201d only three bright planets \u2014 Saturn, Jupiter and Venus \u2014 will remain visible to the naked eye as Mercury slips back into the glare of the sun. <\/p>\n The next major event in the skywatching calendar is a \u201cblood moon\u201d total lunar eclipse on Sept. 7, visible across large parts of Asia, Africa and western Australia. Before sunrise on Sept. 19, observers will be treated to super-slim waning crescent moon close to Venus and Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. That alignment will be beautiful and rare sight. <\/p>\n Just two days later, on Sept. 21, a partial solar eclipse will be visible across parts of the Pacific Ocean just as Saturn reaches opposition, when Earth is between it and the sun. This marks the planet\u2019s brightest appearance of the year and the best time to observe its iconic rings. While Saturn is visible to the naked eye, a modest backyard telescope will reveal its rings in detail \u2014 though this year the view is side-on. <\/p>\n Further ReadingForbes\u2018Planet Parade\u2019 Myths Debunked And How To Truly See It \u2014 By A StargazerBy Jamie Carter<\/a>ForbesNASA Urges Public To Leave The City As Milky Way Appears \u2014 15 Places To GoBy Jamie Carter<\/a>Forbes9 Places To Experience The Next Total Solar Eclipse A Year From TodayBy Jamie Carter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline Skywatchers will be treated to a rare spectacle on Saturday, Aug. 23, as six planets line up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[22279,1815,1090,33997,33995,33994,3726,33998,33993,90,416,56,54,55,33999],"class_list":{"0":"post-85021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-august-2025","9":"tag-jupiter","10":"tag-mercury","11":"tag-moon-and-planets","12":"tag-planet-alignment","13":"tag-planet-parade-2025","14":"tag-planets","15":"tag-planets-alignment","16":"tag-planets-tonight","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-space","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-unitedkingdom","22":"tag-when-full-moon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}