Sky events · 2026 to 2028
Planet parades: when the planets line up
The next planet parade is in the morning sky from 12 November to 4 December 2026: Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter, before sunrise. Every one for the next two years, worked out from the orbits the 3D viewer runs on, with what you can really see.
The next planet parades
Four in the two years from 13 October 2026, by the rule below. Each card gives the best evening or morning, the planets with their angle from the Sun and brightness (lower magnitudes are brighter), and the view from above.
Morning sky, 12 November to 4 December 2026
Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter, before sunrise
| Planet | From the Sun | Magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 20° | −0.5 |
| Venus | 35° | −4.9 |
| Mars | 90° | 0.6 |
| Jupiter | 92° | −2.1 |
Venus is the brightest, at magnitude −4.9. Mercury is the hardest: 20° from the Sun, it sits low in the east before sunrise, in bright twilight. Jupiter is farthest from the Sun, 92° away. Together they stretch 72° along the ecliptic, the path the Sun and the planets follow across the sky. Uranus (magnitude 5.7) is on the same side too, but needs binoculars or a telescope.
Evening sky, 7 to 12 January 2028
Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn, after sunset
| Planet | From the Sun | Magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 16° | −0.9 |
| Venus | 36° | −4.0 |
| Mars | 16° | 1.2 |
| Saturn | 94° | 0.5 |
Venus is the brightest, at magnitude −4.0. Mercury is the hardest: 16° from the Sun, it sits low in the west after sunset, in bright twilight. Saturn is farthest from the Sun, 94° away. Mars, at magnitude 1.2 and 16° from the Sun, may need binoculars to pick out of the twilight. Together they stretch 78° along the ecliptic, the path the Sun and the planets follow across the sky. Uranus (magnitude 5.7) and Neptune (magnitude 7.8) are on the same side too, but need binoculars or a telescope.
Morning sky, 13 June to 11 July 2028
Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn, before sunrise
| Planet | From the Sun | Magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 22° | 0.4 |
| Venus | 33° | −4.7 |
| Mars | 22° | 1.5 |
| Saturn | 58° | 0.4 |
Venus is the brightest, at magnitude −4.7. Mercury is the hardest: 22° from the Sun, it sits low in the east before sunrise, in bright twilight. Saturn is farthest from the Sun, 58° away. Mars, at magnitude 1.5 and 22° from the Sun, may need binoculars to pick out of the twilight. Together they stretch 36° along the ecliptic, the path the Sun and the planets follow across the sky. Uranus (magnitude 5.9) and Neptune (magnitude 7.8) are on the same side too, but need binoculars or a telescope.
Morning sky, 11 to 30 October 2028
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, before sunrise
| Planet | From the Sun | Magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 17° | −0.8 |
| Venus | 36° | −4.0 |
| Mars | 61° | 1.4 |
| Jupiter | 17° | −1.7 |
| Saturn | 171° | −0.1 |
Venus is the brightest, at magnitude −4.0. Jupiter is the hardest: 17° from the Sun, it sits low in the east before sunrise, in bright twilight. Saturn is nearly opposite the Sun, 171° away, so it is low in the west, setting as the Sun rises. Together they stretch 154° along the ecliptic, the path the Sun and the planets follow across the sky. Uranus (magnitude 5.7) is on the same side too, but needs binoculars or a telescope.
What counts as a planet parade here
"Planet parade" is not an astronomical term, as NASA points out, so every list sets its own rule. This page uses one rule and states it: four or more of the five planets you can see without a telescope (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) on the same side of the Sun, each at least 15° from it. Planets east of the Sun are above the horizon together after sunset, in the evening sky; planets west of it before sunrise, in the morning sky. 15° is where our tonight's sky page calls a planet lost in the Sun's glare.
The rule holds for everyone on Earth. Where you are changes how high the planets near the Sun climb in twilight, which depends on your latitude and the season, so the lowest one in a group can be easy from one country and hidden in haze from another. The positions come from the same JPL orbital elements that move the planets in the 3D viewer, and the brightness from the formulas the Astronomical Almanac uses.
What you can really see
Most posts about planetary alignments promise more than the sky shows. What to expect:
- The planets are not lined up in space. They orbit in nearly the same plane, so from Earth they always appear along one line across the sky, the ecliptic. A parade is just a time when several sit on the same side of the Sun. The diagrams show how spread out they really are.
- They are spread out. The groups here stretch from 36° (June 2028) to 154° (October 2028) along the sky, so you turn your head to see them all; they never bunch into one view.
- Big numbers count planets you cannot see. Six- and seven-planet alignments include Uranus, at about magnitude 5.7 the very limit of the naked eye under a dark sky, and Neptune, at about 7.8, which NASA says needs a telescope. They often include a planet so close to the Sun that it is lost in its glare.
- The planet nearest the Sun is the hard one. It sits low in bright twilight and sets soon after the Sun or rises just before it. A clear, flat horizon helps more than anything else.
- There is no single night. The planets shift slowly against the stars, so a parade lasts days or weeks; the longest here runs 29 days. The "best" date on each card is when the planet nearest the Sun stands farthest from it.
- They are not rare. NASA says lineups of four or five naked-eye planets with good visibility come every few years, and the next two years hold four by this rule.
How these dates compare with what you may read
Lists of planetary alignments count planets in different ways, which is why the dates and numbers disagree. Two checks against Star Walk's planet parade list, read on 13 October 2026:
- 14 November 2026. Star Walk lists a small morning alignment of Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. Our rule finds the same four in the morning sky from 12 November to 4 December 2026, best on 20 November 2026, when Mercury is 20° from the Sun.
- 25 December 2027. Star Walk lists a large evening alignment of six planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. That evening our ephemeris puts Mercury only 8° from the Sun, inside its glare, and Uranus (magnitude 5.7) and Neptune (7.8) need binoculars or a telescope. So Venus, Mars and Saturn are the ones to see by eye. The group becomes a four-planet parade by our rule from 7 January 2028, when Mercury climbs 15° clear of the Sun, and Star Walk lists a five-planet evening alignment on 8 January 2028.
Month by month
The five bright planets on the 15th of each month: east of the Sun (the evening sky), west of it (the morning sky), or within 15° of it and lost in the glare. Each side is listed from the Sun outwards, and highlighted rows are parades.
| Month | Evening sky | Morning sky | In the glare |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 2026 | Venus, Mercury, Saturn | Jupiter, Mars | none |
| November 2026 | Saturn | Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars | none |
| December 2026 | Saturn | Venus, Mars, Jupiter | Mercury |
| January 2027 | Saturn | Venus, Mars, Jupiter | Mercury |
| February 2027 | Saturn, Jupiter | Venus, Mars | Mercury |
| March 2027 | Saturn, Jupiter, Mars | Mercury, Venus | none |
| April 2027 | Jupiter, Mars | Venus | Mercury, Saturn |
| May 2027 | Mercury, Jupiter, Mars | Venus, Saturn | none |
| June 2027 | Jupiter, Mars | Venus, Saturn | Mercury |
| July 2027 | Jupiter, Mars | Mercury, Saturn | Venus |
| August 2027 | Mars | Saturn | Mercury, Venus, Jupiter |
| September 2027 | Mercury, Mars | Saturn | Venus, Jupiter |
| October 2027 | Venus, Mars | Jupiter, Saturn | Mercury |
| November 2027 | Venus, Mars, Saturn | Jupiter | Mercury |
| December 2027 | Mars, Venus, Saturn | Jupiter | Mercury |
| January 2028 | Mercury, Venus, Saturn | Jupiter | Mars |
| February 2028 | Venus, Saturn | Mercury, Jupiter | Mars |
| March 2028 | Saturn, Venus, Jupiter | Mercury | Mars |
| April 2028 | Venus, Jupiter | none | Mercury, Mars, Saturn |
| May 2028 | Mercury, Venus, Jupiter | Saturn | Mars |
| June 2028 | Jupiter | Mercury, Mars, Venus, Saturn | none |
| July 2028 | Jupiter | Mars, Venus, Saturn | Mercury |
| August 2028 | Mercury, Jupiter | Mars, Venus, Saturn | none |
| September 2028 | Mercury | Venus, Mars, Saturn | Jupiter |
Questions
When is the next planet parade?
Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter gather in the morning sky from 12 November to 4 December 2026, best on 20 November 2026. After that, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn in the evening sky from 7 to 12 January 2028.
What is a planetary alignment?
An informal name, also called a planet parade, for a time when several planets are visible together on one side of the sky. The planets always lie along the ecliptic, so when several are up at once they seem to line up. On this page it means four or more of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn on the same side of the Sun, each at least 15° from it.
Is there a planetary alignment in 2026?
Yes: Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter in the morning sky from 12 November to 4 December 2026. Look low in the east before sunrise for the planet nearest the Sun.
Can you see all the planets at once?
Not all of them by eye. Uranus is at the very limit of the naked eye under a dark sky and Neptune needs a telescope, and the planets on the far side of the Sun are lost in daylight. Five planets can be seen without a telescope, and in a good parade four or five of them are up together.
Do the planets form a straight line?
They follow the ecliptic, which is a great circle round the sky, so near the horizon it looks like a tilted arc. In space the planets are scattered around the Sun at very different distances, as the diagrams on this page show.
What time should I look?
For an evening parade, in the twilight after sunset, once the sky is dark enough to show the planets and before the one nearest the Sun sets. For a morning parade, in the twilight before sunrise. A planetarium app such as Stellarium gives the rising and setting times for where you are.
More in the sky
Sources
- NASA Science: Planetary Alignments and Planet Parades (Preston Dyches, 2025)
- Star Walk: Planet Parade 2026, When Is the Next Planetary Alignment? (Vito Technology, read 13 October 2026)
- Mallama and Hilton (2018): Computing apparent planetary magnitudes for The Astronomical Almanac, for the brightness of each planet
- NASA JPL: approximate positions of the planets, the orbits used for every position and angle here