Caoimhín's Content

Today, we are going to be taking a look towards the end of the month of February to catch the parade of planets. Just a year ago, we had a parade of planets, which was better than the parade of planets we’re getting at the end of February. What is a parade of planets? It’s when there are multiple planets in the sky, generally the parade of planets doesn’t limit itself to what’s visible to the naked eye.

Those of you who are regular viewers of my channel will know that Uranus is up around the Pleiades somewhere. Uranus doesn’t move around the Sun particularly quickly, so it can’t have strayed too far from the Pleiades. Neptune was quite close to Saturn last year. Saturn moves around the Sun significantly faster than Neptune, but not that fast. It takes over 20 years, almost 30 years, for Saturn to make one full orbit around the Sun, so Neptune can’t be too far away from Saturn at the moment. If we get rid of the atmosphere in Stellarium, Uranus will be labelled, and it is quite close to the Pleiades as expected. Zooming in near to Saturn, Neptune is revealed to be right next to it. Both Neptune and Saturn are moving around the Sun in the same direction, but Saturn is moving a little bit faster than Neptune. By moving through a few days, it becomes clear that Saturn is definitely moving faster than Neptune, but they remain quite close together for a while.

Both of those planets are quite close together in the sky all month, but we need to move quite late in the month to get a the other planets. Bringing back the atmosphere brings back the glow of sunset, and because we are now looking later in the month of February the sunset is going to be later as well. That does bring a fair bit of light into the sky, but Mercury is still visible above the sunset around the 19th. Just those planets would nearly be enough for a parade, e do have now most of the planets in our solar system above the horizon, Mercury, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter, although they will be difficult to all see at the same time, simply because most of the planets are going to be quite close to the sunset glow. Adjusting the time and the date a little brings Venus into the sky, but quite low to the horizon. When Venus is high enough to actually be visible to the naked eye, it looks like Mercury is too faint to be seen. This gives us Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter up at the same time, the only planet visible to the naked eye that’s missing is Mars. Both of the planets that aren’t visible to the naked eye, Uranus and Neptune, are up as well. The only planet that we’re missing is Mars.

Mars, unfortunately, isn’t going to come into the evening sky anytime soon. If we come back to daytime and remove the atmosphere again, Mars appears close to the Sun, on its way to becoming visible in morning time. However, if we come around to morning, Mars is still pretty much level with the Sun as it rises, so it will be quite a while before we get Mars back into the morning sky. Then it will be joined by Mercury once we’re a little bit later, into March, but with the Sun still sending that glow above the horizon while Mars is at the horizon, it’s probably not going to be visible for us here in Ireland. Due to the angle at which we’re seeing the planets, they’re going to be a little bit tough to catch at sunset as well, Venus and Mercury in particular are going to be a little bit tricky. It’s much easier from closer to the equator. This particular parade of planets is going to be quite difficult to catch from here in Ireland, as Venus will be quite close to the horizon as the sky gets dark enough for Mercury and Saturn to become visible at all. This is partly down to the angle at which we’re seeing them, and of course because of bushes and trees along the horizon.

For this parade of planets, much like the last parade of planets, I would encourage you to go to the coastline. We’re going to go with a zero horizon in Stellarium, which puts the horizon completely flat the whole way around, but we really only need a flat horizon towards the west. If you’re looking west over the ocean, off of the western coast of Europe or the west coast of North America, any western coast really, then you’re going to have a much better chance of seeing those planets. We don’t really have to worry about a clear eastern horizon because Jupiter is so high in the sky by the time the Sun goes down, particularly once we’re a little bit later in February. I do believe the 28th is the date being given in many locations for the parade of planets, but if we move forward to the 28th Mercury gets a little bit lower in the sky, which will make it harder to spot, while Venus is getting higher in the sky, making it easier. This leads to a nice close conjunction between Venus and Saturn once we get into March. Mercury and Venus don’t get particularly close together, but if we go earlier in the month of February, coming back to the 20th, Mercury is significantly further from the Sun and higher in the sky. Mercury’s greatest elongation is roughly on the 19th of February this year and Mercury is the tough one. Venus is very bright, even when it’s lower in the sky.

Even with Venus, getting extincted by the atmosphere, it is still almost as bright as Mercury, which is significantly higher with less extinction. Let’s double check the numbers. On the 20th a bit after 6 o’clock, Mercury is at magnitude -0.3, extincted to 0.6, still brighter than most stars. Venus, significantly lower in the sky, should be -3.90, but it’s getting reduced to 0.02. Venus is a still just barely brighter than Mercury, thanks entirely to the extinction of the atmosphere. Moving a few days into the future, Venus quickly outpaces Mercury, coming up there to -2, while Mercury is reduced to 2, meaning that they are on opposite sides of the 0. That means Venus is about 100 times brighter than Mercury. The magnitude scale is logarithmic, so there is a big difference between negative two and positive two on this scale. Even if they’re only 5 steps of magnitude away from each other, the actual difference in brightness is significantly larger than just 5 times. Mercury being easier to see is really more important than Venus being easy to see. Venus become visible much earlier when it’s higher from the horizon, so it may be a good idea to try and catch Venus first, then leave it set while Mercury and Saturn come out. Seeing all of the planets at the same time is unfortunately going to be almost impossible. We can see Saturn, Mercury and Venus together, though Mercury is quite faint there and difficult to see, but we need to look way over to the opposite side of the sky in order to catch Jupiter.

Unfortunately, without some sort of fisheye lens, we can’t quite get a view of the sky that’s big enough to see Jupiter and the other planets. Seeing the whole sky would require a very large field of view, about 111 degrees, which might as well be 180. It’s not 180, but it might as well be in terms of how achievable this field of view is to a human eye. Humans generally have field of view of 120 degrees, but much of this is peripheral and not suited to spotting planets at sunset. This parade of planets is going to be a tricky one for us to catch from here in Ireland, unless we go to the coast. Heading down closer to the equator, if we travel pretty much straight down from Ireland we end up pretty close to the coast of Western Africa. At the same time, the sky is much brighter. We’ve gotten closer to the equator, so of course the Sun is going to appear higher in the sky. Looking at the 19th, the date of Mercury’s greatest elongation, brings the Moon into view.

Looking at around 6:45, we’ve got Saturn, the Moon, Mercury and Venus nice and clear and visible over in the west. We have to look all the way up in the sky to catch Jupiter. Due to the time of year and the fact that we’re so close to the equator, Jupiter is now in the northern sky. That means it’s going to be tough to see Jupiter with these planets. You can see all of these planets in the sky at the same time, you just might need a little bit of help to actually see them. Of course, we’re going to need a telescope to see Uranus or Neptune. Uranus shouldn’t be too bad as it is high in the sky. Taking a look up here towards the Pleiades, if we zoom in Uranus is there, but it will be very difficult to see Uranus with so much light in the sky from sunset. For Neptune, it’s going to be practically impossible. Zooming in on Neptune and Saturn also shows us the lovely crescent Moon nearby. Neptune should be magnitude 7.82, definitely past what we could see with the eye, and down to just 8.19 thanks to the atmospheres. Add in that extra glow from the Sun and it is going to pretty much be wiped out. For this parade of planets, and it was true for the last parade of planets as well, it may be better to see them at different times. Once we push significantly later, with Mercury and Venus below the horizon, the glow of the Moon shouldn’t be too much of an interference, it is only a crescent Moon. Although that does bring Neptune lower in the sky, meaning it’s being extincted by greater air masses, there’s just not as much light from the Sun and that’s going to make Neptune easier to see.

This is all from a city sky with light pollution, of course. If you were in the countryside, those planets, particularly Mercury, would be a little bit easier to see, but easier is a relative term, it’s still going to be pretty tricky. I do hope that you get a chance to see all of the planets during the parade of planets. Of course you’ll need a telescope for Neptune and Uranus, but even if you have to rely on just the naked eye, if you get the timing right, if you get the location right, then there’s a good chance you’ll get to see almost all of the planets that are visible to the naked eye, just missing Mars. Coming back to Ireland and the 19th, we’re just about catching Venus as the Sun goes down, the first one you should try to look at. Jupiter is going to be up all night, so you have plenty of time to find it. Once Venus sinks under the horizon, Mercury and Saturn come into view, and as the sky truly gets dark, that’s the time to pull out your telescope. Take a look at Neptune first before it sinks under the horizon. It is in very close proximity to the Moon and Saturn, not a close conjunction, but definitely some sort of conjunction. Jupiter and Uranus are both nice and high in the sky, so you have plenty of time to look at them.

That’s the upcoming parade of planets. You have more multiple days to take a look at it, it is missing Mars and the planets are in a pretty tricky position, but if you’re lucky enough to be in the right position, they should be visible and I hope you do get the chance to see them. I also hope that you enjoyed this piece, if you did then please do like it. If you enjoy this kind of content, then please subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel. Thank you very much for watching and hopefully I’ll see you back here next time.