A spectacular planetary parade is visible in the night sky—and here's how you can watch this alignment live from the comfort of your own home.
Until the end of the year, it will be possible to see all the planets of the solar system simultaneously after sunset.
Five of the planets—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn—can be observed with the naked eye, while binoculars or a telescope will be required to spot Uranus and Neptune, assuming that skies are clear in your location of course.
Gianluca Masi, an astronomer with the Virtual Telescope Project (VTP), told Newsweek the last opportunity to see the spectacle will likely be December 31 with Wednesday and Thursday this week providing the best remaining chances to catch a glimpse of the planetary parade.
"Mercury is rapidly fading and quickly moving back into the solar glare, so we are losing it very soon," Masi said.
If you are not able to observe the parade before then or would prefer to watch it from home, the VTP is providing a live stream of the solar system "Grand Tour."
The live feed is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time, or 11 a.m. Eastern Time, on Wednesday, December 28, and is set to last around 45 minutes.
The Virtual Telescope Project is a service provided by the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Ceccano, Italy, managed by Masi, that operates and provides access to robotic, remotely operated telescopes.
In the livestream, Masi will show each planet in the sky with his camera, sharing in real time what the device is seeing.
"I will be using a telephoto lens to image each of [the planets] in the sky of Rome, soon after sunset," he said. "My imaging gear will be working from the terrace of my house here."
The naked-eye planets are lined-up in the following order in the night sky starting from the southwestern horizon: Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. Uranus can be spotted between Mars and Jupiter, while Neptune is located between Saturn and Jupiter. The moon is also currently visible.
Mercury will be the hardest of the naked-eye planets to see as it is located in a bright part of the sky. While the planet may be visible to the naked eye, Masi said he would suggest using binoculars to locate it if you want to catch a glimpse in real life.
"Today and tomorrow, the much brighter Venus will help locating Mercury, the latter being within 2 degrees or so of the former," he said.
The "spectacular sight" of this planetary parade is not a common occurrence, occurring every one to two years or so, on average.
The last time all of the planets were visible in the sky simultaneously was June this year. This event was particularly special because the five naked-eye planets also happened to be lined up in the sky in the same sequential order that they physically orbit the sun—i.e. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. An alignment like this had not occurred for 18 years.
During this event, Uranus and Neptune were also visible with binoculars although they were not aligned in increasing order of distance from the sun.
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Aristos is a Newsweek science reporter with the London, U.K., bureau. He reports on science and health topics, including; animal, ... Read more
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