There's also a lunar occultation of Mars (which is near opposition itself, making it relatively bright) happening in a few days, and then again in February, which should be visible from parts of the northern hemisphere: https://in-the-sky.org/news.php?id=20250114_16_100
Apparently this is visible everywhere on Earth, which is cool. (Sometimes sites don't bother saying where and it turns out to only be visible in the US - very annoying for those who live elsewhere.)
Makes sense because the planets are so far away that a different viewpoint on earth won't make a noticeable difference. Unlike for the moon. This is why lunar eclipses are the ones that are only visible in certain places.
This sounds quite interesting. I’m considering buying a telescope for this occasion (we moved out of the city and I’ve been thinking about it for a while, the sky is always so clear around very).
What would you recommend as entry level beginner telescope? Is it worth observing all this via a telescope?
A $200 6 inch / 150mm reflector with the eyepiece on the side is a decent backyard starter scope. You can see the moons of Jupiter, Saturn's rings, the crescent shape of Venus, and nebulas. Ask your local library about the local astronomy club. Someone may have a >200mm scope.
A good pair of binoculars will be sufficient. You didn't need a ton of light gathering capability for casual planet viewing like this.
Telescopes are a bit of a rabbit hole. Many cheap mass market telescopes are also known as hobby killers. A 6" dobsonian (reflector) is a good starting point for deep space objects like nebulae and star clusters. For planetary viewing Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes are great.
However, learning to use a telescope requires time and patience. Taking it to the field for an event like this for the first time may be frustrating as you will be spending most of the time figuring out how to collimate and align it.
I certainly don't mean to discourage you from getting one though.
A good pair of binoculars is much easier to use. They require no collimation out of the box and show an upright image that makes it much easier to navigate the sky, at the cost of reduced magnification and light gathering capability. You will be surprised how many celestial objects even 10x magnification reveals that are invisible to the naked eye.
I don't get why everyone keeps talking about the planets aligning. All the planets are pretty much in the same plane. So if you are on one of the planets, all of the others will always be in a line.
edit: to those downvoting me, can you explain why?
The special occasion is that their phase angles are all of a similar value so they are aligned next to each other. The phase angle describes the position in their respective orbit. If you imagine to look "down" upon the solar system, it would be the angle towards 12 o'clock.
It is rare because the further the planets are from the sun, the longer their orbit periods are. While Earth completes the circle in just a bit above 365 days, Neptune for example takes nearly 165 years to do a round trip. So it would take some time for the slower planets to meet again in the same region in the sky.
I think you're missing the part that from the surface of the Earth, we can never see that whole plane at once. So the special part here is that all the planets are simultaneously in one half of a partition of the plane by a line going through Earth.
There's also a lunar occultation of Mars (which is near opposition itself, making it relatively bright) happening in a few days, and then again in February, which should be visible from parts of the northern hemisphere: https://in-the-sky.org/news.php?id=20250114_16_100
Apparently this is visible everywhere on Earth, which is cool. (Sometimes sites don't bother saying where and it turns out to only be visible in the US - very annoying for those who live elsewhere.)
https://starwalk.space/en/news/what-is-planet-parade
Makes sense because the planets are so far away that a different viewpoint on earth won't make a noticeable difference. Unlike for the moon. This is why lunar eclipses are the ones that are only visible in certain places.
This sounds quite interesting. I’m considering buying a telescope for this occasion (we moved out of the city and I’ve been thinking about it for a while, the sky is always so clear around very).
What would you recommend as entry level beginner telescope? Is it worth observing all this via a telescope?
No a telescope won't help. The 'linear' alignment spans the whole sky and is best seen with the naked eye.
You can click a pic with a wide-angle lens (whether on your phone or a camera).
A $200 6 inch / 150mm reflector with the eyepiece on the side is a decent backyard starter scope. You can see the moons of Jupiter, Saturn's rings, the crescent shape of Venus, and nebulas. Ask your local library about the local astronomy club. Someone may have a >200mm scope.
A good pair of binoculars will be sufficient. You didn't need a ton of light gathering capability for casual planet viewing like this.
Telescopes are a bit of a rabbit hole. Many cheap mass market telescopes are also known as hobby killers. A 6" dobsonian (reflector) is a good starting point for deep space objects like nebulae and star clusters. For planetary viewing Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes are great.
However, learning to use a telescope requires time and patience. Taking it to the field for an event like this for the first time may be frustrating as you will be spending most of the time figuring out how to collimate and align it.
I certainly don't mean to discourage you from getting one though.
A good pair of binoculars is much easier to use. They require no collimation out of the box and show an upright image that makes it much easier to navigate the sky, at the cost of reduced magnification and light gathering capability. You will be surprised how many celestial objects even 10x magnification reveals that are invisible to the naked eye.
Happy planet gazing!
Shouldn't there be some apocalyptic, end-of-the-world conspiracy theory to go along with this? I'm almost disappointed.
I'm sure that astrology-Instagram is full of all kinds of ideas about what this means.
I guess they didn’t “predict” it.
Don't give Joe Rogan or Alex Jones any ideas.
Yes, this was in a documentary called MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis.
(this is a joke, because hn)
Half-Life 3 confirmed! :)
What? Seriously? And I already popped the popcorn...
I'm gonna win the lottery. If i play. /s
How rare is it?
I don't get why everyone keeps talking about the planets aligning. All the planets are pretty much in the same plane. So if you are on one of the planets, all of the others will always be in a line.
edit: to those downvoting me, can you explain why?
The special occasion is that their phase angles are all of a similar value so they are aligned next to each other. The phase angle describes the position in their respective orbit. If you imagine to look "down" upon the solar system, it would be the angle towards 12 o'clock.
It is rare because the further the planets are from the sun, the longer their orbit periods are. While Earth completes the circle in just a bit above 365 days, Neptune for example takes nearly 165 years to do a round trip. So it would take some time for the slower planets to meet again in the same region in the sky.
I think you're missing the part that from the surface of the Earth, we can never see that whole plane at once. So the special part here is that all the planets are simultaneously in one half of a partition of the plane by a line going through Earth.
I didn’t, but I assume they downvoted you as a quick way of saying no to your question, which you chose to phrase in the form of a correct statement.