Sky-gazers across Australia have a rare opportunity tonight to see six planets spread across the night sky, weather permitting. According to NASA, the planetary parade is visible from anywhere on Earth, with twilight offering the clearest conditions.
Heidi Haviland, a planetary scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama, explained that the alignment occurs because of the natural positioning of the planets' orbits around the sun relative to Earth. The four planets visible without any equipment are Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. Uranus and Neptune will require binoculars or a small telescope to pick out.
No protective eyewear is needed, unlike a solar eclipse. Early risers should look before sunrise, while those who prefer evenings will find the best visibility right after sunset. Haviland notes the planets need to be at least roughly ten degrees above the horizon; any lower and Earth's own atmosphere will blur or obscure them entirely.
How to tell the planets apart
For those new to stargazing, Haviland offered some practical identification tips. Venus will almost certainly be the first planet to catch your eye: it appears as a steady, brilliant white light on the western horizon after sunset, brighter than anything in the sky except the sun and the moon itself.
Mars is easier to distinguish than most: look for a reddish dot. Saturn carries a yellowish tinge, and Jupiter can be found high overhead. Mercury is the trickiest of the four naked-eye planets to spot. The smallest planet in the solar system appears white and sits low on the horizon; your best window to catch it is around 30 to 60 minutes after local sunset.
Joel Wallace, public information officer at the Marshall Space Flight Centre, offered the simplest advice: get away from city lights and hope for clear skies. Light pollution is one of the biggest obstacles for urban astronomers across Australia's coastal capitals, making regional and rural areas particularly well-placed for tonight's display.
Haviland also noted a scientific reason why planetary positions matter beyond public spectacle. Mission planners at NASA depend on orbital alignment when scheduling launches to other planets. The InSight mission, which sent a robotic lander to Mars in 2018, had to wait a full year for Earth and Mars to reach their closest approach before launch was viable.
More celestial events on the calendar
Tonight's parade is only the first of several noteworthy events in the weeks ahead. This Tuesday brings a total lunar eclipse visible from Asia, Australia, the Pacific Islands and the Americas. The moon will take on a deep red colour during totality, the effect that gives the phenomenon its popular name: the blood moon. It will be the last total lunar eclipse visible from North America until December 2028, making it a particularly significant event for astronomers in that part of the world.
On May 31, a blue moon will rise, the second full moon within the same calendar month. Despite the name, the moon will not actually appear blue; the phrase simply marks the relative rarity of the occurrence, which happens every two and a half to three years.
Then on June 8 and 9, Venus and Jupiter will appear startlingly close together in the sky, separated by no more than a pinky finger's width as seen from Earth, despite being separated by hundreds of millions of kilometres in space. Both planets will be visible with the naked eye, according to NASA's 2026 astronomical events calendar.
For Australians, the southern hemisphere's famously dark outback skies offer some of the best stargazing conditions on the planet. Whether you are an early riser or a late-night observer, the coming weeks present a genuine run of celestial events worth stepping outside for.