Planet Parade 2025: Last chance to watch planetary alignment before 2040

Skygazers are eagerly anticipating a rare celestial event set to unfold on February 28. The next time all seven planets align in this formation will be in 2040

A spectacular celestial event is going to take place on February 28, 2025, when seven planets in the solar system will come together in an alignment called a planetary parade. 

 

The next alignment of these seven planets won’t happen anytime soon, as this rare event is very rare. Today will mark the culmination of the Planetary parade that began last month with Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune aligned in the sky from January 21 to 29. Today's planetary cluster, including Mercury, will create a spectacular celestial display—one that won’t occur again until 2040.

 

With proper planning, favourable skies, and clear views, sky-gazers can witness this spectacular event.

 

What is Planetary Alignment?

Astronomers describe planetary alignment as the celestial phenomenon when planets gather together on one side of the Sun at the same time. 

 

When planets (three to eight) come together, they form an alignment. When five or six planets show up together, it is called a large alignment. The five-planet alignment is more common than the six. The rarest among them is seven planet alignments.

 

Unlike diagrams and illustrations, the planets will not be visible in a queue. Planets orbit the Sun in different orbits in three-dimensional space which makes it almost impossible for them to come together in a straight line.

 

Nasa explaining the reason says, “While it’s true that they [planets] will appear more or less along a line across the sky, that’s what planets always do. That line is called the ecliptic, and it represents the plane of the solar system in which the planets orbit around the Sun.”

 

“This is, incidentally, why we sometimes observe planets appearing to approach close to each other on the sky, as we view them along a line while they careen around the cosmic racetrack,” the space agency added.

How to watch the planetary parade?

Here's how you can watch the rare planetary parade:

If you are one of the lucky people interested in watching the rare event, then here's how you can do it.

Find an open, dark area which is away from city lights so that there will be no light pollution.

Before setting up to watch the event at night, just make sure the skies will be clear on the night of the event.

If the above two points are ticked, then get binoculars or a telescope as most of the planets can not be viewed with the naked eye as Uranus and Neptune will be most difficult to see and need a telescope to view them better.