Eight Things You Need To Know To See This Week’s Best Naked-Eye ‘Planet Parade’ For 100 Years

It’s the stargazing highlight of the month, but how much do you know about how, why and where the five naked-eye planets are aligning to adorn the southeastern horizon this weekend and throughout June 2022?

Here’s everything you need to know to see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn stretching across the sky—which begins this Friday, June 3 and Saturday, June 4, 2022, but will get easier over the next three weeks:

1. It’s all happening before sunrise

Yes, a bit of bad news to start with. You’ll need to get up before sunrise and cast your eyes to the southeastern horizon to see Mercury closest to the horizon followed by Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Those latter four planets will be easy, but you’ll need an unobstructed eastern horizon (and probably binoculars) to see little Mercury. If you can’t see Mercury then keep trying at the same time for the rest of June because it will be rising higher into the pre-dawn sky.

2. You only have 30 minutes to see it

Timing is everything because the Sun will rise soon after Mercury. Visit timeanddate.com and enter your city, change the date to June 3 or June 4, then scroll down to see what time Mercury rises where you are. That’s when to set your alarm for. If you don’t have binoculars and/or a clear, low view of the horizon then you can get up even earlier to see the other planets in a darker sky (in that case Venus-rise would be a good time to wake up).

3. They’ll appear in their order from the Sun

In a rather remarkable turn of events the five naked-eye planets will be arranged in their natural order from the Sun across 91° of the sky. That’s the closest they’ve appeared to be for about 100 years. First will be Mercury (the dimmest) and Venus (the brightest) 18º apart—the two inner planets that orbit the Sun closer than we do on Earth—followed by Mars 4º from Jupiter (the second-brightest) and Saturn the outlier at 39º out. A comparable view has not been possible since 2004 and an alignment like this won’t be visible again until 2041.

4. It’s an optical illusion

The planets are not really aligned—it’s just a line-of-sight thing. For the planets to all appear in the same view means that they must all be clustered on one side of the solar system—which they are—but they will be many millions of miles from each other and from Earth. Nothing is actually happening aside from Earth’s orbit taking it to a place in space where the other planets appear to be in a line.

5. A telescope will bag you two extra planets

They’re too small to see with the naked-eye (and very difficult in binoculars) and they’re not in their “correct” position with regard to how far they are from the Sun, but if you have a small telescope you could also find Uranus and Neptune in the pre-dawn night sky. Uranus will be between Mercury and Venus, Neptune between Jupiter and Saturn. If you’re a “Pluto is a planet” person then, yes, you’re beloved dwarf planet is also up there, due south beyond Saturn … though it’s too small to see with anything but a massive telescope.

6. You can easily see a bonus sixth planet

So you’re gazing at the planets, counting them off as you see them … one, two, three, four, five. Now give you neck a rest and take a look down at your feet. Six! It’s only fair to count Earth in your solar system collection.

7. It will have no effect on your mood or anything else

The “planetary parade” is cool to look at. That’s really it. The position of the planets in the sky do not have any consequences for life on Earth—and certainly not on your mood. No floods, no weird energy, no nothing. This is all about line-of-sight of some very distant objects. How could their alignment have any effect on … anything? If your mood does suffer then that’s probably because you got up so early.

8. It’s happening again later this month

Although the view of all the planets within 91º is the appeal of this week’s planet parade, it’s going to get easier (read: to see Mercury) later this month. According to Sky & Telescope magazine, the planetary lineup on Friday, June 24, 2022 will even more compelling despite it occurring over 107º. Mercury will be easier to see and you’ll have about an hour to find all five planets.There will also be a waning 19%-lit crescent Moon between Venus and Mars.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.