Planetary alignments aren’t rare — but 6 visible planets are.

Tonight, you can see the Planet Parade of 2025. Here's how to watch and what you need to know:

Four bright planets will be visible with the naked eye — Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. For those with binoculars or a small telescope, Uranus and Neptune also become visible, making six planets accessible at once. 

And there's more. Comet ATLAS is now visible as well. After surviving its close encounter with the Sun, the comet has a brightness of around magnitude –3, making it a standout celestial event. 

Venus and Saturn appear close together in the West to Southwest during the first couple of hours after dark, while Jupiter will shine high overhead while Mars will rise in the east. A simple way to distinguish a star from a planet is that planets tend to shine steadily while stars twinkle. All these planets align along the ecliptic, an imaginary "clothesline" marking the plane of the solar system.

Mars has a slight red hue, which should help you identify it a little more easily. Jupiter appears as a cream-colored light, shining just 5° from Aldebaran in Taurus.

Learn more: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/whats-up-january-2025/