Planetary parade - exact date to see ‘fun’ celestial display in night sky

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A rare ‘parade’ of planets seen only once every few years will light up the night sky this week in a must-see celestial display.

Stargazers are eagerly anticipating this week’s planetary alignment, where six of the planets in our solar system will be visible at once.

In a spectacular planetary performance, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye. For the lucky stargazers with a telescope, Uranus and Neptune will also join the party.

Experts say that having six visible planets in the sky at one time is pretty rare, occurring maybe once every few years. A planetary alignment is when several planets are visible in the sky at the same time, says Albert Zijlstra, Professor of Astrophysics at The University of Manchester. “At any time, where planets appear in the sky depends on where they are in their orbit compared to us.