This week, all seven other planets in our solar system are visible at the same time in the night sky - known as a "planetary parade". However, some of them are tricky to spot, so if you want to tick them all off you'll need to come prepared.
Getting the right location, timing, and equipment are all essential if you want to see each planet in the line-up.
Location
To have a chance to see all the planets you'll need to head to a location with an uninterruped view of the western horizon. This is because the lowest planet, Saturn, is only a few degrees above the western horizon after the sun has set.
It's also important to get away from the light pollution of a town or city, and head out to a countryside location with dark skies. Jupiter, Venus and Mars are fairly bright, but the other planets will be hard to spot in light-polluted areas.
Keep an eye on the weather forecast too - you'll want to find a place with minimal cloud cover. Clearoutside.com has a useful astronomy weather forecast, telling you how light-polluted a location is as well as giving a prediction of cloud cover. [3]
Timing
With Saturn and Mercury particularly close to the horizon, getting to your location early is key. Here in the UK, sunset is currently around 5:50pm, and within half an hour Saturn and Mercury will have also set, making it important that you are set up ready to start viewing as soon as the sun has dipped below the horizon.
Friday evening will be the best time to see all seven planets. Saturn is currently moving closer to the sun in the sky, and in a few more days it will be too near the sun to allow observation.
Equipment
Firstly, you'll need a map of the night sky. I find a live map such as Stellarium works best for me, since it gives the map for your location in real time. [4]
With the naked eye, you should be able to spot Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Mars. Saturn should also be visible but is so close to the horizon it will be hard to spot (so far I haven't managed it!).
To complete the set and see Uranus and Neptune too, you will need good binoculars or a telescope - Neptune is too faint to be visible to the naked eye, and Uranus is only barely visible to the naked eye under very dark skies. [5]
With a telescope, you should be able to see planetary details such as the thin crescent of Venus, Jupiter's bands of colour and its Galilean moons, and Mars' polar ice cap. If you manage to catch it in time, Saturn's rings are almost exactly edge-on currently.
Good luck with viewing the planetary parade!
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