Find planet parades near you
List the upcoming parades visible from your location, ranked by how good they are to watch. Adjust how many planets you want and whether telescope planets count.
The standout parade ahead
Among the parades coming up, one usually stands out: the morning or evening when the most planets gather, sitting highest and brightest. Here is the best one visible from your location in the year ahead.
Set your location to find the standout parade near you.
Headlines sometimes promise more planets than you can realistically see, counting ones lost in the Sun's glare or sitting right on the horizon. This tracker counts only the planets you could actually pick out, so its numbers stay honest.
Also widely reported in 2026
A handful of 2026 dates drew big "planet alignment" headlines. They are worth a look, but from mid-northern latitudes the reality is more modest than the hype. Here is what you can actually see from around 40°N; enter your own location in the tracker above for your exact view.
| Date | Reported as | What you can really see (around 40°N) |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 28, 2026 (evening) | a seven-planet alignment | Jupiter rides high and Saturn sits low to the naked eye; Uranus and Neptune need a telescope; Mercury and Venus are lost in the Sun's glare and Mars has already set. |
| Apr 18-20, 2026 (evening) | an April alignment | Venus and Jupiter to the naked eye, with Uranus nearby through a telescope; the other planets are below the horizon after sunset. |
| Jun 12, 2026 (dusk and dawn) | a June parade | A split view: Mercury, Venus and Jupiter low in the west at dusk, and Mars with Saturn higher up before dawn. |
| Aug 12, 2026 (morning) | an August parade | Mars and Saturn ride high to the naked eye, with Uranus and Neptune through a telescope, the same dawn as the total solar eclipse. |
Not all of these clear our four-visible-planets bar from around 40°N: April and June fall short. The two that do, late February and mid-August, sit inside longer parade runs already on the calendar below rather than appearing as separate entries. A planet counts as visible only when it is genuinely above the horizon and clear of the Sun's glare, so these numbers stay honest.
Planet parade calendar
Reference dates for mid-northern latitudes (around 40°N). Each row opens a full page for that parade. Use the finder above for the exact view from your own location.
What a planet parade really is
Every planet orbits the Sun in almost the same flat plane, the same plane Earth orbits in. From the ground, that shared plane appears as a single great arc across our sky called the ecliptic. The Sun, the Moon, and every planet always travel along it. They are never scattered randomly around the sky; they are always somewhere on that one line.
A planet parade is simply a stretch of days or weeks when several planets sit on the visible part of that arc at the same time, high enough above the horizon and far enough from the Sun's glare to be seen. They are not close together in space. Jupiter can be ten times farther from us than Mars while both appear in the same patch of sky, because we are looking out along the same direction. A parade is a matter of viewpoint, like three friends at very different distances all appearing in one photo because they stood in the same direction from the camera.
Because the planets move at different speeds, the line-up is always changing. Mercury and Venus dart in and out near the Sun, while Jupiter and Saturn drift slowly. The parade you see this month will look different next month, which is what makes catching a good one worthwhile.
How this tracker decides a planet counts
For your location and a given morning or evening, the tracker places the Sun about 10° below the horizon, the middle of twilight when the sky is dark but the planets have not yet set. A planet is counted as visible when it is at least 7° above the horizon (clear of buildings and haze) and at least 15° from the Sun (out of the glare). When four or more planets pass both tests at once, that morning or evening is a parade.
The kinds of parade
| Name | What you see |
|---|---|
| Three-planet parade | Common. A pleasing trio, often including a bright one like Venus or Jupiter. |
| Four-planet parade | A genuine line of planets across the sky. Several times a year somewhere on Earth. |
| Five-planet parade | A long, striking arc. Often includes the two telescope planets among the count. |
| All five naked-eye planets | Uncommon and memorable: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn all visible without optical aid. |
How the score works
Each parade gets a score from 0 to 100 so you can tell a casual sight from a once-in-years event. It adds up five parts: how many planets are visible (up to 35 points), how many of those are bright enough to see without a telescope (up to 25), how tightly they are grouped along the sky (up to 20), how high they climb above the horizon (up to 10), and how high even the lowest one sits, which is a rough guide to how long they stay in view (up to 10). In short, more planets, brighter ones, grouped closer and sitting higher, all push the score up. Hover any score on this page for a one-line reminder.
Do parades affect Earth? No.
A planet parade is something to look at, not something that acts on you. It is a line-of-sight arrangement, not a physical alliance. The planets are not really gathered together; they only share a direction in our sky.
Their gravity does reach Earth, but it is tiny. The Moon is far smaller than the planets, yet far closer, and its tidal pull on Earth is thousands of times stronger than that of all the planets put together. Even when the planets gather on one side of the sky, the extra tug they add is far too small to measure against the Moon's, which itself raises the ocean tides by only a meter or so. There is no measurable effect on earthquakes, weather, the economy, or human behavior. Claims that a parade triggers disasters or fortunes belong to astrology and superstition, not astronomy.
The real reward is the view. A row of planets glowing along the ecliptic before dawn is one of the easiest and most beautiful things in the night sky, and it costs nothing but an early alarm and a clear horizon.
Keep exploring
Planetary Alignment Calculator
The dates of conjunctions and how often planets line up through the Sun, the rhythm behind the parades.
CalculatorSynodic-Period Calculator
The average time between two planets meeting, the clock that sets when parades return.
InteractiveVenus: the 8-Year Pentagram
Why Venus is the morning or evening star, and the five-petaled pattern it traces over eight years.
InteractiveWhy Eclipses Happen
The same tilted ecliptic that lines up the planets also governs when the Sun and Moon align.
Frequently asked questions
When is the next planet parade?
It depends on where you stand, because a planet above the horizon for one observer is below it for another. The tracker at the top of this page works out the next parade for your exact location. As a rough guide, four or more planets are visible together somewhere on Earth several times a year.
How many planets can I see without a telescope?
At most five. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all bright enough for the unaided eye. Uranus and Neptune join many parades but need binoculars or a telescope, so the tracker labels them separately.
Do the planets ever line up perfectly?
Not within a human lifetime. A precise line-up of all the major planets essentially never happens. What the headlines call a great alignment is really several planets sharing the same region of sky, which is common and easy to enjoy.
What is the difference between a parade and a conjunction?
A conjunction is when two bodies appear very close together, within a degree or two. A parade is the looser, larger picture: several planets spread along the ecliptic and visible at the same time. For exact conjunction dates, use the Planetary Alignment Calculator.