‘Lazy astronomy’: Viewing the Planet Parade

A planetary alignment, one of the greatest planetary displays in years, will shortly take place.

Also known as a planet parade, six planets will line up in a row across the night sky from about 21 January.

Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye and Neptune and Uranus can be seen through a telescope.  

“You can tick them all off in five minutes,” Chris Lintott, BBC Sky at Night broadcaster, and professor of astrophysics at Oxford University, explains in this video.