Planets aligning: When is the Planet Parade 2025? What does it mean, when and how to view it
The final 'planet parade' of the year will feature six planets aligning in the pre-dawn sky on Sunday, August 10.
A planetary alignment, casually called a 'planet parade,' occurs when several planets gather closely on one side of the sun at the same time. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn will be bright enough to be seen without a telescope in the hour before sunrise.
But stargazers will need a telescope or binoculars to see Uranus and Neptune. The planets will be visible on the eastern horizon, and Mercury will rise shortly before sunrise near the Cancer constellation, so it's best to start looking about an hour before the sun comes up.
Jupiter and Venus will be a bit higher to the right of Mercury and will be right next to each other. They form their closest approach of the year, known as a conjunction, on August 12.
According to Starwalk, the next alignment will occur on February 28, 2026 when Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter align in the sky. Once these planets are above the horizon on August 10, if you’re in the northern hemisphere, you will see Neptune and Saturn to the southwest (about 40 degrees above the horizon), followed by Uranus to the southeast (about 55 degrees above the horizon).
Completing the arc in the east are Venus and Jupiter (both just over 20 degrees above the horizon) and lastly Mercury, which will just barely eke over the eastern horizon. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, instead of looking south, you would look north to see these objects: Neptune and Saturn would be in the northwest, followed by Uranus in the north and slightly to the east.
Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury would be slightly more to the northeast in the southern hemisphere, and they would be a few degrees lower on the horizon than in the northern hemisphere.