Stargazers don’t often catch images of a rare astronomical event in which every planet in the solar system can be seen simultaneously in the night sky. This rare event took place recently and was reflected in the photos. In squares, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn can be seen with the naked eye, while Uranus and Neptune can be seen with binoculars or a telescope.
Astronomer Dr. Gianluca Masi shared a photo of the five planets visible to the naked eye, while other skywatchers around the world captured images of the “planet parade.”
Masi had taken these photos last night using a special lens camera from the roof of a building in Rome, Italy.
The photos show Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, respectively, starting from the southwest horizon and looking east.
All seven other planets in our solar system will remain visible for a while, but viewing Uranus and Neptune requires a telescope or binoculars.
Working with the Virtual Telescope Project, Dr. “The opportunity to see the entire planetary family at a glance doesn’t happen very often,” Masi told MailOnline. We can get a better idea of the cosmic place we live in by looking at other planets. “We only have a few days to look at this parade before Mercury gets lost in the sun glare.”
In this rare event, all planets appear as tiny points of light in the night sky for stargazers in the northern hemisphere. While Mercury is the hardest planet to see without magnification because it sits in a bright part of the sky, it can be detected near Venus, which is 70 times brighter than it.
The rest of the planets line up eastward, with Jupiter brighter than any star above the southern sky. While the largest planet in our solar system disappears just before midnight, Mars appears all night after rising in the east just before sunset.
Mars appears redder and brighter than most stars, while its neighbor Saturn appears with a golden glow when visible to the southwest after dark.
With magnifying devices, Uranus can be seen between Mars and Jupiter, and Neptune between Saturn and Jupiter.
The last time all five planets visible to the naked eye were seen, based on their distance from the Sun, was 18 years ago.
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