This January amateur skygazers are in for a treat as there is an epic planetary alignment about to happen. 6 of our Solar System’s 8 planets will not only be in a line, but 4 of those will be visible with the naked eye.
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00:00This January, amateur sky gazers are in for a treat, as there is an epic planetary alignment
00:09about to happen.
00:10Six of our solar system's eight planets will not only be in a line, but four of those will
00:14be visible with the naked eye.
00:16Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Uranus, and Neptune are all set to be on parade, lining
00:20up on their ecliptic orbits.
00:23According to NASA, this ecliptic orbit is why we sometimes observe planets appearing
00:26to approach closely to each other in the sky as we view them along a line, while they
00:31careen around the cosmic racetrack.
00:33In fact, Venus and Saturn recently had a conjunction, where they appeared their closest in the night
00:38sky.
00:39This planetary alignment will last the rest of the month, with those two being visible
00:42to the southwest in the first couple of hours at night.
00:45Meanwhile, Jupiter and Mars can be seen when looking eastward.
00:48Unfortunately, Uranus and Neptune can only be seen with the right telescopes.
00:52This is the second planetary alignment within the last year, but experts say it's still
00:56worth checking out, as they do not always happen annually.