Planetary gathering in January 2025: putting aside the hype, it's a beautiful sight you can see!
There has been a lot of media attention on the so-called 'grand alignment of the planets' on January 25, 2025, often accompanied by graphics that show seven planets all lined up in a straight line. This is absolutely not happening; and such an alignment would never happen in the 11-billion-year life span of our solar system! Having said that, what is really happening is very cool: six of the earth's fellow planets are spread across the early-evening in January and early February 2025. And while two of them, Uranus and Neptune, can't be seen with the naked eye, the others are easy to spot just by looking up. These including Saturn (as bright as a bright star) and three blazingly bright planets: Venus, Jupiter, and Mars.
As you can see from this graphic, the four planets are spread out across the sky, and you only have from about 6:30 PM (dusk) to 7:30 PM in January to see the whole set of four; after that, Venus and Saturn will set.
January 15, 2025:
Venus, low in the west-southwest, is by far the brightest dot in the sky; at minus 4.6 magnitude, it's about 15 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest night time star. Jupiter is due south at dusk and shines at minus 2.6 magnitude; not quite as bright as Venus but several times brighter than Sirius, that brightest star.
Mars's brightness, unlike those other two planets, changes dramatically; it's brighter than minus 1 magnitude all month and peaks at minus 1.42 in mid-January, which is exactly as bright as the brightest star. Especially when it is this bright, there is a distinctive pale-orange color to the planet Mars.
By the last week of January, Saturn will appear below Venus:
By February 15, Saturn will be lost in the light of the setting sun, leaving the other three bright planets still shining in our early evening skies till we lose Venus in mid-March:
To learn more:
From now through February 14, 2025, LSC will explore this gathering of plants in its Space Trip show in the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium (11:45 AM on all open days; added show on weekends at 2:30 PM).