However, if you want to see all five, you’ll need very clear skies, perfect timing, an unobstructed view of the eastern horizon, and possibly binoculars or a telescope.

How to see the rare alignment of 5 planets this week?

On the morning of June 17, about an hour before sunrise, look east. There you will see a bright object near the horizon, Jupiter. It will be the brightest of the five planets and the easiest to spot. You can’t miss her. After that, look a little up and to the right. There, you will be able to see Saturn above the southeast horizon. It will appear dimmer and smaller than Jupiter, but still visible to the naked eye.

After that, the next best choice would be to spot Mercury. It will be between the eastern and northeastern horizons, just above the horizon, below and to the left of Jupiter. It gets harder after that. The last two planets, Neptune and Uranus, are not only the farthest from Earth but also the faintest planets in the sky. Unless you have an incredibly clear sky without light pollution, you’ll probably need binoculars or a telescope to see these two planets.

Neptune will be roughly midway between Jupiter and Saturn, and Uranus will be midway between Jupiter and Mercury. So, if you followed, the planets will be going from lowest to highest in the sky in this order: Mercury, Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune, and finally Saturn. above all, we used the free downloadable astronomy app Stellarium.

Planetary alignment is what we observe from Earth, not a true planetary parade.

According to Star Walk, a planetary alignment is when multiple planets appear simultaneously in Earth’s sky on the same side of the Sun. Actually, this event isn’t the planets lining up in some sort of planetary parade in our solar system. Rather, it is a visual phenomenon where we can see planets close together in a small area of ​​the sky. Despite all that has been said, this layout is still beautiful and rare. The next notable 5 planetary alignments won’t occur until September 8, 2040, according to StarWalk.

The best chance to see the alignment is before sunrise on June 17.

It can be difficult to detect planets among other stars, including constellations. StarWalk says an app like Sky Tonight could be useful for finding and identifying planets. For some people, the parade of planets will be visible a few days before and after June 17, but the 17th is the best date to see planets because that’s when they’re at their brightest. Source