On the night of Feb. 28, there were seven planets in the night sky at once, all visible to the naked eye except for Neptune and Uranus, which could only be seen with assistance from tools like a telescope.
The event, known colloquially as a “planet parade”, occurred on Feb. 28, but even more rare than normal, all seven planets in the solar system were in the night sky at once. A planet parade usually consists of four or more planets visible, but there were all seven planets at a certain point in their orbit, so they could all be seen in the night sky, with a telescope. Woodside’s community has taken an interest in this, and many people who stargaze looked out for this event.
“To see seven planets in the sky at once, they all need to be in the same location in the sky,” astronomy teacher Matthew Sahagún said. “They have to be opposite the direction of the sun. You can’t see all of these planets with your naked eye…the parade of planets included two planets that you weren’t able to see with your eye, Neptune and Uranus, you need a telescope to see those. With a telescope, they just appear as a point of light that is pretty indistinct from a dot from a star.”
The rare occurrence of the parade of planets included all seven planets for a night, the next time there will be all seven planets in the sky is in 2040, according to BBC. This very rare event drew the attention of many students, like junior Michael Tellis.
“I plan on majoring in astrophysics, or physics or something [like that],” Tellis said. “I’ve been interested in [astronomy], and I do stargazing. Actually, lately, there’s been, I think it was late February when all the planets were lined up [in the sky].”
The reason that this event is so rare is because of how the planets must all be in a certain position in their orbit, and only work out and line up over many years, according to Tellis.
“It’s rare,” Tellis said. “From what I’ve heard, it’s happening right now. The reason why it’s happening is because, from our point of view, all the planets are in one direction. It’s kind of hard to visualize in your head. If you were to say, Earth is on the left side of the solar system, everything else is on the right side. The reason why [there is the parade of planets] is there are seven planets on one side [of the solar system].”
Stargazing is a hobby that many people take up, and for some Woodside students, it is a habit that accompanies other activities, and this event has drawn their attention.
“When I go camping I go looking for stars,” sophomore Quincy King said. “You [can] see a lot more stars, because there’s a lot of stars compared to the city. I did hear about [the parade of planets]. My friends told me about it a little while ago.”
This is an event that draws the attention of stargazers and is a rare event that only happens once over many years. Sahagún s that stargazing is a hobby that is worth picking up for many that are accessible and fascinating to many.
“For stargazing, there’s no need to purchase expensive equipment,” Sahagun said. “Just using your eyes is enough to see quite a bit. The phases of the moon and understanding constellations and their orientation in the sky [are interesting to watch], and why they appear at different times of the year. All of this you can do with just your eyeball in a backyard. It’s a cheap hobby.”
