Several planets line up across the evening sky in February 2026, and under good conditions four of them can be seen without any equipment at all. NASA’s skywatching guidance for the month describes the lineup as a “planetary parade,” with Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter visible to the unaided eye soon after sunset. The window is brief each night, and knowing where and when to look can make the difference between spotting the full lineup and only catching the brightest planets.
What the Planetary Parade Looks Like
The February 2026 alignment spreads six planets across a wide arc of sky. Mercury, Venus, and Saturn cluster low in the west and southwest shortly after sunset, according to NASA’s monthly guidance. Jupiter, by contrast, sits high overhead, making it one of the easiest targets of the evening. Uranus and Neptune round out the six, but both are too faint for naked-eye viewing and require binoculars or a telescope to pick out their subtle glows against the background stars.
The practical result is a four-planet naked-eye event. Venus will be the brightest object in the western sky after the sun sets, outshining every star. Jupiter will dominate higher up, a steady white point that does not twinkle as much as nearby stars. Mercury and Saturn demand a clearer horizon because they hover close to the glow of twilight, and haze or city buildings can easily swallow them. Viewers who can find a spot with an unobstructed western view and minimal light pollution will have the best chance of picking out all four planets without optical aids and then using binoculars to hunt for the outer pair.
When to Step Outside
Timing matters more than most casual observers realize. Using rise/set times and altitude/azimuth outputs from the JPL Horizons System, many locations will have a practical viewing window of roughly 30 to 60 minutes after local sunset. Step out too early and the sky can still be too bright for Mercury or Saturn to stand out; wait too long and Mercury slips below the horizon, often vanishing into low-lying haze before its geometric set time. That narrow gap is the core challenge of this event, because Mercury sets quickly and Saturn follows not far behind, leaving Venus and Jupiter as the lingering beacons of the parade.
There is some disagreement about peak dates. An Associated Press dispatch describes the parade as occurring toward the end of February, while reporting in a UK newspaper characterizes the alignment as stretching across much of the month. Both accounts agree that late February offers the strongest grouping, and February 28, 2026, is one useful example date to plug into Horizons to generate precise positions for your location. For anyone planning a single outing, the final week of the month is the safest bet, though earlier evenings may still showcase Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn in roughly similar positions, especially for observers with clear western horizons.
How JPL Ephemerides Power the Predictions
Every claim about where a planet will appear on a given night traces back to mathematical models maintained by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The JPL planetary ephemerides supply the positional data that the Horizons System uses to generate altitude, azimuth, rise and set times, visual magnitudes, and solar elongations for each planet. These calculations can be exported for specific dates and locations, allowing skywatchers to see exactly when each planet clears a chosen altitude above the horizon. Because the data are computed from high-precision dynamical models, the predictions are accurate enough for both casual observing and professional mission planning.
That level of precision is what separates a productive skywatching session from a frustrating one. A viewer in Seattle, for example, faces a different sunset time and horizon profile than someone in Miami, and the same is true across the globe. By querying Horizons for a specific location and evening, observers can learn exactly how many degrees above the horizon Mercury will sit at a given minute, and whether local terrain or buildings are likely to block the view. The ephemeris data are distributed through tools including SPICE kernels and FTP access, and the underlying models are documented in a peer-reviewed analysis in The Astronomical Journal, which details how planetary positions are refined using decades of spacecraft tracking and ground-based observations.
Why “Rare” Deserves a Closer Look
Coverage of this event has leaned heavily on the word “rare,” yet none of the primary sources from NASA or JPL quantify how infrequent a six-planet alignment actually is. The explanation offered in British coverage emphasizes that planetary parades occur because the planets orbit the sun in roughly the same plane, occasionally lining up from Earth’s perspective. That geometric description is accurate but generic: any time several planets happen to lie on the same side of the sun, they can appear strung out along the ecliptic in the sky. Alignments of three or four planets happen multiple times per year, especially when slower outer planets linger in the same region of the sky for months.
What makes this particular display stand out is not that six worlds are technically above the horizon at once, but that four of them are reasonably bright and well placed for casual viewing during a short, convenient evening window. The inclusion of Mercury is especially important because it orbits so close to the sun that it rarely appears far enough from the glare to join a prominent lineup. Readers should treat the “rare” label with some skepticism: the visual spectacle is real, and the chance to see four planets at once with no equipment is genuinely appealing, yet the absence of a firm historical frequency from any official source means the rarity claim rests on secondary reporting rather than primary statistics. What is well established is that the specific geometry of late February 2026 places Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter in favorable positions simultaneously, and that combination does not repeat on a predictable annual schedule.
Practical Tips for First-Time Skywatchers
The biggest obstacle for most people will not be cloud cover or light pollution but simply knowing where to point their eyes. Start by facing west-southwest right after sunset, ideally from a high vantage point or open field. Venus will appear first as the sky darkens, bright enough to cut through suburban light pollution and often visible before any stars. Saturn and Mercury will be lower and dimmer, closer to the horizon, and you may need to sweep your gaze just above any distant trees or buildings to spot them. Then turn your gaze upward: Jupiter will be well above the horizon, unmistakable in its steady brightness compared to the twinkling of nearby stars, and it will remain visible for hours after the lower planets have set.
For those who want to go beyond naked-eye viewing, binoculars or a small telescope can bring Uranus and Neptune into range, potentially completing the six-planet set. Resources from NASA’s JPL can help you understand the broader context of what you are seeing, from mission updates to background on each planet’s atmosphere and moons. Viewers who prefer guided explanations can explore video features on NASA+ or listen to space-focused shows in the agency’s podcast collection before heading outside. Armed with a bit of preparation and a clear horizon, even first-time observers can turn this brief February window into a memorable tour of the solar system spread across the evening sky.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
