Up to 7 planets align in night sky wowing skygazers in January and February
Because of a little cosmic kismet, at least four planets will appear in a line throughout the first two months of the year, with rare special appearances from seven planets at once.
Visualization of the Moon's phases in 2025
FILE VIDEO: NASA visualization shows the Moon's phases in 2025 (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)
Early 2025 is a good time for skygazing and spotting up to seven planets in the night sky – if you have a little help.
According to NASA, these multi-planet views aren't "super rare," but they don't happen every year and are worth observing.
These events are sometimes known as alignments, but the planets are always actually lined up; we just can't see them all at once. The planets are always in a line known as the ecliptic, the plane where they orbit the Sun. As the planets race around the Sun at different speeds, sometimes they line up on the same side of the Sun, appearing closely together in the night sky.
2022 FILE IMAGE: A crescent moon along with Venus is seen during a rare alignment of four planets, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn in Srinagar. (Photo by Saqib Majeed/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
Because of a little cosmic kismet, four planets will appear in a line throughout the first two months of the year, with special appearances from Neptune, Uranus and Mercury.
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Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn have been on display for most of January. All month after sunset, Venus and Saturn have appeared in the southwestern sky, with Jupiter above and Mars to the east.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope completed its annual grand tour of the outer Solar System for 2021, including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Note: The planets are not shown to scale in this image. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team)
Uranus and Neptune are there in the sky, too, but not bright enough to view without the aid of binoculars or a telescope, which makes it a great time to visit your local planetarium or observatory.
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On the morning of Jan. 25, Mercury briefly joins the planet parade, making it a party of seven.
The band breaks up in February, but there are still four planets to spot in the night sky.
In February, Mercury will be visible in the evening sky while Saturn and Neptune exit to stage right.