Thursday, February 26, 2026
No, you won't be able to see all 6 planets lined up on February 28, 2026
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| North-western sky on the evening of Saturday, February 28 as seen from Adelaide at 20:20 ACDST (30 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). | Western sky on the evening of Saturday, February 28 as seen from Los Angeles at 18:29 local time (30 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). |
Despite a variety of claims on the internet, you won't be able to see all 6 planets lined up on February 28, 2026 (UPDATE).
The good news is that they are lined up. The bad news is that they are too deep in the twilight to see.
At civil twilight, 30 minutes after sunset, if you have a clear, level, unobstructed horizon, Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Neptune are invisible in the twilight glow (Mercury has set in the southern hemisphere), as is Uranus. Jupiter *might* just be visible.
Venus may be visible in binoculars (or if you have very good eyesight) in the Northern hemisphere low in the twilight if the horizon conditions are clear. UDPATE: In some places in the Northern hemisphere, Venus may be high enough to see at nautical twilight. Daniel Fischer was able to image it at nautical twilight in Bochum in the EU https://scicomm.xyz/@cosmos4u/116133837700056539 .
60 minutes later at astronomical twilight, when the sky is darker, Venus and Saturn have set (well they are right on the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere and still is high in some places see update above) and Uranus will be just visible in binoculars (Jupiter will be well visible).
Labels: lineup, Mercury, Neptune, public outreach, Saturn, Venus
Wednesday, June 08, 2022
All Five bright Classical Planets in the Morning sky in rare line-up (10-30 June, 2022)
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| Morning sky on Sunday June 12 as seen from Adelaide at 5:50 am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury form a line (Uranus, Neptune and the Asteroid Vesta are in the line too, but all need at least binoculars to see). Venus and Uranus are at their closest.The inset shows the binocular appearance of Venus and Uranus at this time. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). | Morning sky on Sunday June 19 as seen from Adelaide at 5:52am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). The waning Moon is near Saturn. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). | Morning sky on Wedensday June 22 as seen from Adelaide at 5:53 am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). The waning Moon is near Jupiter. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). |
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| Morning sky on Thursday June 23 as seen from Adelaide at 5:53 am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). The crescent Moon is near Mars.The inset shows the binocular appearance of the Moon and Mars at 3:00 am local time. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). | Morning sky on Saturday June 25 as seen from Adelaide at 5:53 am ACST (90 minutes before sunrise). The Moon and and Uranus are at their closest (occultation in WA, NT and FNQ). The inset shows the binocular appearance of the Moon and Uranus at this time. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia except the occulting states at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). | Morning sky on Sunday June 26 as seen from Adelaide at 6:24 am ACST (60 minutes before sunrise). The crescent moon forms a line with Venus, Aldebaran and Mercury, with the Pleiades cluster close by. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). |
Over the next three weeks you will be able to see a rather rare sight, if you have clear morning skies. All 5 bright classical planets are lined up in the order they are from the Sun. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In February 2016 we also had 5 bright planets in the morning skies but the lineup was Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. We have to go back 21 December 2004 to have all 5 planets in the morning sky in solar order.
Also, unlike the other times we had all the bright classical planets together in the morning, we also have all the other planets (Uranus, Neptune), the Dwarf planet Pluto and the Asteroid 4 Vesta. These are not is solar system order.
To make up for this on the 12th we have a close approach of Venus and Uranus. The Moon joins the line-up from the 19th, and we have lots of nice close Moon approaches, with the Moon and Uranus being close on the 25th and occultations in Cairns (Dawn), Darwin, Alice Springs and Perth.
On the 26th Venus and the thin crescent Moon are close, the Pleiades and Aldebaran and Mercury make this an attractive sight. On the 27th the thin crescent Moon forms a rectangle with Mercury, Venus and Aldebaran. On the 30th Venus forms a second eye for Taurus the Bull.
Labels: 4 Vesta, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Occultation, Saturn, unaided eye, Uranus, Venus
Thursday, October 03, 2019
iTelescope ALERT! comet C/2018 W2 (Africano) near Neptune (4 Oct UT)
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| C/2018 W2 (Africano) seen at Astronomical Twilight 0n the evening of 3 October (local time) from Mayhill, New Mexico. The comet is around 1 degree from Neptune. The large rectangle is the field of view of T14/T20 and the small that of T5Click to embiggen. | C/2018 W2 (Africano) seen at Astronomical Twilight on the evening from 3 October (local time)from from Siding Springs, Australia. The comet is close to Neptune on the 4th. The large rectangle is the field of view of T12. Click to embiggen. |
C/2018 W2 (Africano) has a close approach to the planet Neptune on the 4th of October UT. Both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere have good views at Astronomical twilight. In the Southern Hemisphere the pair get higher as the evening goes on, but the comet moves further away from Neptune.
The pair are closest at 4:25 UT on the 4th (UT). They are close to phi Aquarii, which makes a handy guide to find them. (H/T Dave Friend via comet images)
The MPC one line ephemeris is:
CK18W020 2019 09 05.7286 1.454687 1.000777 157.9721 181.8498 116.6157 20190825 9.5 4.0 C/2018 W2 (Africano)
Ephemeris of comet C/2018 W2 Africano from SSO on 4 October Time Geo R.A. Geo Dec Altitude 19:47:00 23h 07m 37.9s -06° 10' 03" +42° 24' 55" 20:47:00 23h 07m 22.9s -06° 16' 32" +52° 35' 05" 21:47:00 23h 07m 07.9s -06° 23' 01" +59° 42' 28" 22:47:00 23h 06m 52.9s -06° 29' 28" +61° 20' 04" 23:47:00 23h 06m 37.9s -06° 35' 55" +56° 38' 48" 00:47:00 23h 06m 23.0s -06° 42' 21" +47° 44' 12" 01:47:00 23h 06m 08.1s -06° 48' 45" +36° 45' 30" 02:47:00 23h 05m 53.2s -06° 55' 09" +24° 51' 30" 03:47:00 23h 05m 38.4s -07° 01' 32" +12° 37' 31" 04:47:00 23h 05m 23.6s -07° 07' 55" +00° 43' 12"
Ephemeris of comet C/2018 W2 Africano from Mayhill on 3 October (4 Oct UT) Time Geo R.A. Geo Dec Altitude 19:11:00 23h 09m 40.9s -05° 16' 58" +30° 51' 50" 20:11:00 23h 09m 25.6s -05° 23' 34" +40° 47' 52" 21:11:00 23h 09m 10.3s -05° 30' 09" +48° 10' 21" 22:11:00 23h 08m 55.1s -05° 36' 44" +51° 25' 54" 23:11:00 23h 08m 39.9s -05° 43' 18" +49° 32' 45" 00:11:00 23h 08m 24.7s -05° 49' 51" +43° 08' 12" 01:11:00 23h 08m 09.6s -05° 56' 23" +33° 45' 13" 02:11:00 23h 07m 54.5s -06° 02' 54" +22° 40' 19" 03:11:00 23h 07m 39.4s -06° 09' 24" +10° 40' 57" 04:11:00 23h 07m 24.4s -06° 15' 53" -01° 55' 44"
Labels: comet, Conjunction, iTelescope, Neptune, telescope
Friday, December 07, 2018
Mars and Neptune spectacularly close tonight (7 December 2018)
Mars and Neptune will be spectacularly close tonight (Friday 7 December). The pair will be a mere 4 arc minutes apart (that's a fraction of a finger-width), and the pair will easily fit into the field of view of the high power eyepiece.
Mars is readily obvious as the bright red object above the western horizon. Even small telescopes will pick the pair up, with Neptune being the brightest (dim) object close to Mars, but you may need a larger scope to pick up Neptune's bluish hue. You will need large binoculars (10x50 or bigger) and dark skies to see Neptune in binoculars (it is currently magnitude 7.9 so you need to be able to see faint stars of magnitude 8 or dimmer to pick it up).
The pair will be closer tonight than they will come for the next 200 years, so go have a look if you can.
Labels: binocular, Conjunction, Mars, Neptune, telescope
Monday, September 02, 2013
Seeing Neptune in Binoculars (1 September 2013)
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| Chart showing the location of Neptune in Aquarius at (almost) the same scale as my photograph and almost the same orientation (click to embiggen) so as to confirm I really did image what I said I did. | Neptune imaged using my Caonon IXUS, 3x Zoom, 800 ASA and 15 second exposure. The image is inverted (colour reversed) to make the faint dot that is the planet stand out (indicated by white arrows). You will need to click to embiggen to see it properly |
You may remember that Neptune is just past opposition and for the moment Neptune is magnitude 7.8. This means it is potentially visible in strong binoculars (at least 10x50's) under dark sky conditions for the next month, when it is normally only visible in telescopes.
Well, last night I got out my 10x50's to view Nova Delphini, and after that (and with a lot of consulting of maps) I went after Neptune.
And got it. I had to do a lot of double checking with the charts to make sure as it was so faint, but yep, I got it. I even got a photo of it with my little "point and shoot" Canon.
Considering the amount of effort that went to discover Neptune with the telescopes of the day, that is pretty mind-blowing.
Labels: binoculars, Neptune
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Neptunes New Moon in Celestia
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| The view towards Neptune from S/2004 N1, with the Moons Galetea, Proteus and Triton visible. Simulated in Celestia. | Orbit of the new Moon simulated in Celestia. |
Hard on the heels of Pluto's new Moons, a new Moon of Neptune has been discovered in archival pictures taken of Neptune by the Hubble space telescope.The new Moon, S/2004 N1, is the 14th Moon of Neptune, orbiting between the Moons Larissa and Proteus. At 20 Km across, it is the smallest Moon of Neptune (but by no means the smallest Solar System Moon), and appallingly dim.
Once again I've made a Celestia file for the new Moon.
As usual, copy the data here to a plain text file (newneptunemoon.ssc), copy the file to the Celestia extras folder. Once more I have to update my Celestia Moon tour.
===============newneptunemoon.ssc======================================
"Neptune XIV:S/2004 N 1" "Sol/Neptune"
{
Class "minormoon"
Texture "asteroid.jpg"
SemiAxes [ 8 10 10 ]
EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 0.9362
SemiMajorAxis 104200
Eccentricity 0.0000
Inclination 0.0000 # Using Galatea
AscendingNode 327.929 # Using Galatea
ArgOfPericenter 89.060 # J2000.0
MeanAnomaly 2.357 # Using Galatea
}
RotationOffset 233.6 #Using Galatea
Albedo 0.063 #Using Galatea
}
========================================================================
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