Where to Look for the Planets on the 21st? Alignment of Five or More Planets in the Night Sky with Stellarium
Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, and Venus will appear in an arc from east to west. You can spot four of these planets with your naked eyes; however, two of them—Uranus and Neptune—require a good pair of high-powered binoculars or a backyard telescope. Exactly where in the night sky to look for each planet on the 21st is outlined below, but if you’re not sure how to find them, don’t worry—apps like Stellarium can help you easily locate the planets and other celestial objects.
Meanwhile, Mars is at “opposition” this month. When the sun and planet are directly opposite each other with Earth in between. This celestial event happens about every two years for the red planet.
Venus and Saturn are close to each other. The climax will take place Friday and Saturday, when the two planets will appear within just “a couple of finger widths’ distance apart” from Earth’s perspective, NASA said. There are hundreds of millions of miles between them.
To get the best view, allow 20 to 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark. It is difficult to see objects in the night sky when the sun is setting and you are far away from artificial light.
For about a month the alignment will be visible. The planets’ positions will, however, shift over this time, so their positions on January 21 will not be the same as their positions in late February.
A lot of alignments of five or more are rare and conjunctions of two planets are somewhat common. The next alignment of five or more planets will not happen until after 2040, even though there are two more planetary alignments this year.
Seeing the Red Planet, Uranus, and Pleiades with a Backyard Telescope and a Large Capacity Calculator
If you can start sky watching earlier in the evening you will be able to see the planets as they move lower toward the horizon, but it will become more difficult as the evening goes on.
Mars will be in the east on January 21. Mars has just reached opposition—meaning the Earth is directly between it and the sun—so the Red Planet will appear at its biggest and brightest and will be visible all night.
The naked eye can easily see Mars. But if you use a backyard telescope, you’ll be able to see its north polar ice cap, which spans more than 600 miles, and the Vallis Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system, which runs along Mars’ equator and is over 1,800 miles long.
A backyard telescope will allow you to see the giant planet in even greater detail. Look for Jupiter’s cloud bands and its stunning Red Spot, an anticyclone that is over 10,000 miles wide—1.3 times the width of Earth. The Red Spot isn’t always visible from Earth, because Jupiter’s days are about 10 hours long, meaning the storm spends a sizable portion of time facing away from Earth on a lot of nights. This calculator can be used by you to see when it might be visible from your location.
On the 21st, Uranus will be about 50 degrees to the west of Jupiter and slightly below it. Uranus will appear to be near the Pleiades, a bright star cluster that is visible to the naked eye.
You will need a pair of high-powered binoculars or a backyard telescope to see Uranus, as it’s too dim to easily see with the naked eye. Through such equipment, Uranus looks like a star with a pale blue tint. Although Uranus has rings, they are too faint to see, even with viewing equipment. However, if you have a powerful backyard telescope, you could potentially see its moons.