A planet parade will appear in the night sky next week. Here's how to see it.

[elleng]

Cincinnati Enquirer

Have you ever wanted to see a planet? Well, next week you will get the chance to see not one but five of them.

Five planets, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars, will be visible in the night sky Tuesday, March 28, according to Star Walk, an astronomy app and website. They will appear in an arc shape just above the horizon near the quarter-moon, WKYC reports.

For those interested in seeing this planetary parade, you are encouraged to start your observations soon after sunset. March 28 will be the best day for observation, but you can also see this cosmic event a few days before and after the date.

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2023/03/21/what-is-planet-parade-heres-how-see-5-planets-once-next-week/70033290007/?

[bdamomma]

1. Thanks for posting this

nt

[Backseat Driver]

2. I love cosmic events--but it's not often possible to see them here in March.

We riding the roller coaster of seasonal climate transition so when it's warm it's usually wet or about to be, LOL. Makes it hard to even start working the garden and even harder to view the heavens. But I will go out with the doggies and try to count as many as I can should it possibly be clear and dry. Thanks for the head's up!

[Tetrachloride]

4. Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune need a binoculars or telescope usually

I have been able to see Saturn with bare eye, but only because not too much city light and no cloud and i had a sky map. I knew fairly closely where to look.

Venus and Jupiter are bright.

[John1956PA]

6. I have been following this story. Saturn is now setting before the sun does.

After sunset, Jupiter is close to the horizon, and Venus is a bit higher. Mars is significantly higher.

A few months ago, after learning that Jupiter and Saturn were high in the sky and close to each other, I was able to identify Saturn which appears at the brightness of an average star.

[Diamond_Dog]

3. I will be sure to look for this, thanks, elleng!

This is kind of a crappy photograph but I saw Venus last January. Taken from a parking lot

[Ilsa]

5. I may have to bring out the big telescope.

It's heavy, though. I don't like carrying big heavy items.

[progree]

7. To see a map of the sky from one's locale (one can change the time, and locale)

https://in-the-sky.org/skymap2.php

(get rid of that deep space junk with that checkbox below the sky map and on the left side -- nobody can see any of that stuff unless they live 50 miles from the nearest street lamp, so its just clutter)

I would be lost without this because of the city lights, so few stars and planets are visible, so this helps enormously in finding things and being sure that what I'm seeing is actually what I think I'm seeing (or not).

For those who want to see the H.A. Rey version of the constellations: On the left side below the sky map, there is the default setting: "Simplified Designs". Pull down on its arrow, and choose "H.A. Rey's designs".

Here's another article on the Friday planet parade, from NPR

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/03/23/npr-astronomy-planets-alignment-jupiter-mercury-venus-mars-uranus