Lunar Eclipse and Solar Eclipse Highlight March Astronomy Calendar

A lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse highlight the March astronomy calendar. But before the calendar flips from February to March, stargazers will be in store for a rare treat. Here is a look at what to expect in the night skies in the weeks ahead.

Rare Planetary Parade: Ultra-Rare Planetary Alignment

Stargazers have been keeping an eye on the skies in recent weeks, checking out the parade of seven planets at one time. This rarity will be amplified further on Friday when all eight planets in the galaxy will be visible at the same time. To illustrate the rarity of this event, the next time that all eight planets will appear next to each other will be in the year 2492.

Mercury joined the planetary parade this week, coming together the rest of the celestial bodies that have been visible since January. While most of the planets can be seen with the naked eye, you will need a telescope to see Uranus and Neptune. It is also challenging to see Mercury as it appears exceptionally low in the western sky between 30 and 60 minutes after the sun goes down. Train your eyes just above the horizon if you want to see the glow of this planet.

Although the planets appear to line up in a straight line, the truth is that they are spinning millions of miles apart. The objects simply seem to appear together because they are all currently located on the same side of the sun when looking from Earth.