Throughout February, a striking gathering of the five brightest planets—Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Saturn—along with the more elusive Uranus and Neptune, will be the main celestial attraction in the evening sky. Later in the month, anyone with a clear, unobstructed view of the horizon may be able to see all five bright planets stretching across the sky. Two of these planets, Mercury and Saturn, will appear especially close together on Monday, Feb. 24 — the highlight of this month-long planetary display.
While this planetary alignment isn’t particularly rare, it is relatively uncommon. Spotting two, three, or even four bright planets at once is not unusual, but the chance to see all five together doesn’t come around often. Looking ahead, a similar alignment will occur in late October 2028, though that event will take place before sunrise, requiring early risers to catch the view.
For February 2025, however, all you need to do is step outside at dusk—an especially convenient viewing time.
The lineup: Venus, the evening beacon
By far, the most prominent of the five planets is Venus. Although it reached its greatest angular distance east of the sun on Jan. 10, it continues to shine brilliantly in the west-southwest sky at dusk throughout February — a breathtaking evening lantern. Venus will remain at peak brightness for much of the month, and if you observe it through steadily held binoculars or a small telescope, you’ll see it as a crescent. As February progresses, Venus’s disk will appear larger as it moves closer to Earth, while its crescent thins as the planet aligns more closely with the Earth-sun line of sight.
Saturn — Easy, then problematic
The next planet to spot is Saturn, the famed “lord of the rings.” To find it, simply look toward Venus and extend an imaginary line straight downward — the first bright star-like object you come across will be Saturn. Your first impression might be, “Wow, it’s so dim!” But in reality, Saturn shines as brightly as a first-magnitude star. However, when compared to Venus, which is a full six magnitudes brighter, Saturn appears significantly fainter—only about 1/250 as bright!
Saturn is typically more radiant, but right now, its ring system is nearly edge-on from Earth’s perspective, contributing little reflected light. To catch a glimpse of the rings—now appearing as a thin, bright line bisecting the planet’s disk—you’ll need a small telescope with at least 30x magnification.
During the first two weeks of February, watch as the gap between Venus and Saturn gradually widens. In the second half of the month, Saturn will become increasingly difficult to spot against the brightening evening twilight, eventually fading into the sun’s glare by month’s end.
But we’ll be coming back to it in a moment.
Jupiter and moons
Then there’s Jupiter — unmistakable with its silvery-white brilliance, though only one-tenth as bright as Venus. The largest planet in our solar system appears high in the south at dusk, accompanied by two famous naked-eye star clusters, the Pleiades and Hyades, as well as several bright winter stars. The most notable is the orange-hued Aldebaran, positioned just below Jupiter.
With binoculars or a small telescope, you can also spot Jupiter’s four largest moons, first observed by Galileo in 1610 with his crude telescope. Make a special effort to view them on the night of Feb. 25-26, when three of them—Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—form a strikingly tight triangle on one side of the planet, while Io sits alone on the other. The triangle will appear “tightest” at 12:39 a.m. Eastern Time on Feb. 26 (0539 GMT, or 9:39 p.m. Pacific Time on Feb. 25).
Fiery Mars and his two companions
Now, look halfway up in the eastern sky for orange-yellow Mars, which blazes into view as night falls. During February, it is accompanied by the “Twin Stars” of Gemini, Pollux and Castor. This striking trio spends nearly the entire night crossing the sky, forming a distinctive triangle that gradually shifts in size and shape as the month progresses.
Mars was at opposition and closest to Earth in January. During February, as Earth moves ahead in its orbit, Mars lags behind, causing it to fade by about three-quarters of a magnitude over the course of the month.
Mercury takes us back to Saturn
The fifth and final planet is the smallest in our solar system: Mercury. This rocky little world becomes visible during the final week of February, shining almost as brightly as Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, at magnitude -1.2. It will set just over an hour after the sun on Feb. 24.
Remember when we said we’d come back to Saturn?
Well, on Feb. 24, Mercury will be in conjunction with Saturn, with the two planets appearing relatively close — just 1.5 degrees apart. This will be your chance to complete the set and say you’ve seen all five evening planets at once. Mercury will be positioned to Saturn’s right and shining about eight times brighter.
To spot them, you’ll need a flat, unobstructed west-southwest horizon and a very clear, transparent sky. Start looking about 30 minutes after sunset, scanning two fist-widths at arm’s length directly below Venus. We strongly recommend using binoculars to scan near the horizon. Mercury should be easy to pick up, and once you’ve found it, you should have no trouble seeing it with the naked eye. Saturn, however, is another story. While it’s likely visible through binoculars, spotting it without optical aid will be a challenge.
But if you succeed, you’ll have seen all five—and won this round of “planetary bingo.”
Honorable mention
We’ve covered the five brightest planets visible to the naked eye, but two more can be spotted with good binoculars or a small telescope. A star chart or atlas will help pinpoint their exact locations in the sky.
Uranus can sometimes be spotted with the naked eye by those with excellent eyesight, a clear, dark sky, and prior knowledge of where to look. At its brightest, it shines at magnitude +5.6 and is easily identifiable with good binoculars. A small telescope may reveal its tiny, greenish disk.
Finally, we come to the most distant of the eight classical planets: Neptune. It will spend all of 2025 in the constellation Pisces. At its peak magnitude of +7.8, this bluish-hued world is visible only with good binoculars or a telescope.
Try spotting it on the evening of Feb. 1, when it appears near brilliant Venus and a waxing crescent moon. Later in the month, it fades into the bright evening twilight as it approaches conjunction with the sun on March 20.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers’ Almanac and other publications.
