If you own a telescope clean the lenses well and put yourself where there is not too much light pollution. Already from last month Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were all visible in the night sky. And today, February 2025, Mercury will join the group by bringing all seven our planets closest to being visible from the earth. If scientifically the phenomenon does not say much, when this happens we can see more interesting things at the same time and it is therefore the right time to return to look at the stars or, as in this case, the planets. It is interesting to note that they will always appear along the same arch in the night sky, in the path – called ecliptic – which exists because all the planets of our sun system orbit around the sun more or less on the same level. Moreover, the term “planetary alignment” is not scientific, but a generic colloquial expression that can refer to multiple astronomical events. As a rule, astronomers seek more specific planetary alignments, such as oppositions and conjunctions, terms that refer to the positions created by two celestial bodies and the earth: opposition means that the two bodies are on opposite sides of the earth, while conjunction means that a celestial body It is between the earth and another body. Planetary alignments like these occur more often than you may expect, we normally can see at least one planet almost every night and regularly see two or three at various moments of the year. Being able to observe four or more planets is an event that occurs once every few years, while witnessing a phenomenon like the one that goes from today to August, when the planets are six, it is much rarer. Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Saturn, Neptune and Mercury will be there at the reach of a telescope, also because Uranus and Neptune reflect the sunlight too weakly to be seen with the naked eye. But you don’t need a large professional telescope to see them, something amateur is sufficient or, if mounted on a stand, a slightly pushed telephoto lens.
To succeed in the company, however, it is important to satisfy some conditions: 1 2 3. I set the telescope in a stable way on the ground and with the eye at the right height to be able to be comfortable in placing the eye. 4. Download one of the many applications (free or non -free) on the mobile phone for the location of the stars, you will need to orient yourself precisely. Whether it’s Stellarium, SkyView, Cosmoshow does not matter, what matters is to spend, stop on the spot, a great flight, indeed a unique journey, jumping for millions of kilometers from one celestial body to another. And maybe enchant, even to inspire, some teenager. Because as Leonardo da Vinci wrote, “You will have been and brame to return”.
