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What gear do you need to see February’s 'planetary parade’ in 2026?
What gear do you need to see February’s 'planetary parade’ in 2026?
published
26 February 2026
Six of Earth’s neighboring planets are about to come into view at once, but skywatchers should temper expectations. Here’s how to use optics to get the most from the event.
[A picture of a town with a twilight sky and moon.]
- (Image credit: Getty Images)
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Have you heard about the "planetary parade?"If you’ve not seen the wild claims about the so-called alignment of six or seven planets in your social media feeds, you soon will. Is it a fact? It’s certainly not a fiction, with NASA as the source for a claim that six planets — Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus — will soon be visible together in the evening sky. The word 'visible' is doing a lot of heavy lifting because, unfortunately, only two of those planets will be easily seen, while two are marginal and two require either binoculars, a telescope or a camera and a camera lens. However, if you know what to expect and have the right gear, seeing six planets in one evening will be possible.
February ‘planetary parade’: Using binoculars
[A silhouetted person using binoculars on top of a mountain with a twilight sky.]
Binoculars will help you find planets just after sunset. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Binoculars will be one of the most useful tools for this event. While Jupiter and Venus will be visible to the naked eye, a good pair of stargazing binoculars will dramatically improve your chances of seeing Mercury and Saturn in bright twilight, as well as glimpsing Uranus and the Pleiades open cluster once it’s dark. They’ll also be useful for observing the moon and the nearby Beehive Cluster.
Products with 7x to 10x magnification and either a 42mm or 50mm aperture are ideal for astronomy, providing a wide field of view yet usable for sweeping across the western horizon to pick out dimmer objects near the glow of a recent sunset. About 7x42, 7x50, 10x42 or 10x50 products — or anything similar — balance brightness, magnification and stability, allowing you to get a good view of the fainter members of the “planetary parade.”
Keeping to a maximum 50mm aperture means you’ll be able to keep the binoculars steady enough to identify planets. However, if you need a helping hand, consider image-stabilized binoculars, which use clever engineering and electronics to reduce hand shake, helping to reveal the subtle light of faint planets and making it easier to “star hop” from one object to another.
February ‘planetary parade’: Using a telescope
[A person using a telescope to view the night sky.]
A telescope will help get close-ups of Jupiter, as well as for glimpsing the outer planets. (Image credit: Getty Images)
A telescope becomes particularly useful for this “planetary parade” if you want to stand any chance of seeing Neptune. It will also be incredibly useful for Uranus and Saturn, give you a great view of Jupiter and its moons, and offer a stunning close-up of the moon’s craters.
For planetary observing, refractor telescopes, Dobsonians, Schmidt-Cassegrains, and Maksutov-Cassegrains boast long focal lengths and can accommodate eyepieces that offer high magnifications.
A six-inch telescope will give you a reasonable chance of glimpsing Saturn, though twilight conditions will make that challenging. That's even more the case for Neptune, which will require excellent conditions. The same telescope will likely reveal Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s cloud bands, transforming them from bright dots into distinct worlds.
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Any smaller telescope will be useful for Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter and the moon. The larger the telescope’s aperture, the more light it gathers and the higher the magnification it allows, revealing more detail.
Smart telescopes, which automatically locate and track objects, will simplify the hunt for Uranus and Neptune. By removing guesswork, they can quickly position the instrument and even stack digital images to enhance faint targets — though don’t expect great images.
How to take photos of the ‘planetary parade’
[A person using a camera to take photos of the night sky.]
Wide-angle shots will capture multiple planets. (Image credit: Getty Images)
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