It's a planet parade in the night sky! You will be able to see Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars easily on cloudless nights (which can be hard to come by in NEO in January - but not impossible.)
All you have to do to see them is head outside during the first couple of hours after sunset. Position yourself to be looking south. According to NASA, you’ll be able to see Venus and Saturn close to each other toward the southwest, Jupiter high overhead, and Mars toward the east.
There are plenty of free apps that can help guide you, but Venus and Jupiter are usually easy to spot. They are both some of the brightest natural objects in the sky (following the sun and the moon)!
The Red Planet is directly opposite the Sun from Earth and shines brightly all night. It’s in the east as night falls and in the southwest at dawn. (Uranus and Neptune are there, too, but a telescope is needed to see them.)
Mars is also in opposition this month, which is when the planet lies directly on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun, forming a straight line.
Around that time is also when it is closest to Earth, making it appear at its biggest and brightest. For Mars, oppositions happen about every two years. This one won’t be the most spectacular ever, but it’s still closer than average.
Planets always appear along a line in the sky, so the “alignment” isn’t special. What’s less common is seeing four or five bright planets at once, which doesn’t happen every year.
That line is called the ecliptic, and it represents the plane of the solar system in which the planets orbit around the Sun.
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