Planetary alignment

When five or more planets share the evening or the morning sky, worked out for your date.

5 planets before dawn

Sat, Nov 21, 2026 · best night

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus

Looking south: each planet's angle from the Sun along the planets' path across the sky.

▶ See the lines of sight in the simulatorEvery planet's direction from Earth, drawn to scale, on any date from 1800 to 2200.

Coming up

Best night	Planets	Which
Aug 15, 2026	6 before dawn	Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune	See it →
Nov 21, 2026	5 before dawn	Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus	See it →
Feb 12, 2027	5 after sunset	Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune	See it →
Feb 20, 2027	5 after sunset	Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune	See it →
Jul 2, 2027	5 before dawn	Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune	See it →
Jan 9, 2028	6 after sunset	Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune	See it →
Mar 13, 2028	5 after sunset	Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune	See it →
Jun 27, 2028	6 before dawn	Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune	See it →

Dates are the best night of each parade; the planets are there for days or weeks around it. A planet within 10° of the Sun is left out: it's lost in the twilight. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are easy to see by eye; Uranus needs a dark sky or binoculars, Neptune a telescope.

Parades in 2026

Best night	Planets	Which
Feb 28, 2026	6 after sunset	Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune	See it →
Aug 15, 2026	6 before dawn	Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune	See it →
Nov 21, 2026	5 before dawn	Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus	See it →

Famous line-ups

Date	What happened
Feb 5, 1962	The five bright planets and the Sun all within 16° of sky, the tightest from 1800 to 2200, on the day of a total solar eclipse.	See it →
Mar 10, 1982	All eight planets within 96° on one side of the Sun. A 1974 bestseller warned they would set off earthquakes. Nothing happened: their pull on the Sun is tiny.	See it →
Jan 22, 1984	All seven planets in the morning sky, bunched between 24° and 86° from the Sun, every one clear of the glare.	See it →
May 5, 2000	The five bright planets and the Sun all within 26° of sky. Rumours of disaster spread; nobody could even see them.	See it →
Feb 28, 2025	All seven planets in the evening sky at once: the parade that made the news.	See it →
May 18, 2161	All eight planets within 69° on one side of the Sun, the tightest from 1800 to 2200 by the simulator’s reckoning.	See it →

Is it really a line?

No. The planets are scattered all round the Sun at very different distances. An alignment only means that, seen from Earth, several of them are on the same side of the Sun. The planets all orbit in nearly the same flat plane, so they seem to follow one arc across the sky.

After sunset you see the planets east of the Sun; before dawn, the ones west of it. The best parades have the planets spread well clear of the Sun. When they bunch up right beside it, as in May 2000, the line-up is real but nobody can see it.

What the simulator does

The view switches to true-scale distances, so a straight line from Earth points exactly where you would look in the sky.
A line of sight runs from Earth to every planet. The Earth–Sun line splits the sky: planets on one side are up after sunset, the others before dawn.
The card lists the next parades from any date and jumps to famous ones. Play time forward and watch the planets move between the two skies.

Questions people ask

When is the next planetary alignment?

Nov 21, 2026: 5 planets before dawn (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus). The next with six or more is Jan 9, 2028, 6 after sunset. The table above lists the rest.

Does a planetary alignment affect Earth?

No. The Moon's tidal pull on Earth is about 18,000 times that of Venus, the planet that comes closest, and all the planets together at their closest add less than a hundredth of a percent to the Moon's tides. In 1982, when a bestselling book warned that an alignment would set off earthquakes, nothing happened.

Will the planets ever line up in a straight line?

No. Their orbits are tilted a few degrees to each other and their years never fall into step. By the simulator's reckoning, the tightest line-up between 1800 and 2200 comes on 18 May 2161, when all eight planets sit within 69° on one side of the Sun.

Can I see all the planets in a parade?

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, yes, by eye, if the sky is clear down to the horizon; Mercury is always low and only up for a short time. Uranus is at the limit of eyesight and needs a dark sky or binoculars. Neptune always needs a telescope.

Keep going

What if the Sun disappeared?What if? · the Sun Voyager 1's trajectory, from 1977 to todayMission · Voyager 1 How a gravity assist worksWhat if? · gravity assist Why Mars launch windows come every 26 monthsWhat if? · Mars How far is the Moon, really?What if? · the Moon How long does a message to Mars take?What if? · lightspeed Jupiter's moonsClose-up · Jupiter Lagrange pointsSandbox · Lagrange points Moon phase todaySky · the Moon Next eclipseSky · eclipses Open the sandboxSolar System Simulator — real N-body gravity Daily OrbitToday's sky, one probe, six launches

Every number on this page comes from the simulator's own physics or the real mission record it is checked against. Where the simulation and reality differ, the page says so.