Don't expect to look upward and see seven planets neatly queued up in a row with your naked eye. But you may be able to see a few, if you know where -- and how -- to look.
"Unfortunately, they're not going to be seeing like this giant line of planets arranged perfectly," said Francine Jackson, staff astronomer of the Ladd Observatory at Brown University in a phone interview.
"Uranus and Neptune are telescopic, or at least binocular, so you're not going to go outside and see either of them," she said. "Uranus, you might be able to see if you're in the middle of the forest, if you have a very, very dark sky, but then you really have to kind of know where it is and know what you're looking for."
If you are interested in skygazing and seeing some planets, your best bets will be Venus, Jupiter and Mars. "Those three are very easy to see," said Jackson.
Start with Venus, because it should be the easiest one to spot.
"After the sun and the moon, Venus is the brightest object that you can see," said Jackson.
"If you go outside and look in the southwest, you can't miss it."
If you have a telescope or a pair of binoculars, all the better.
"If you want to do something, find Venus, look at it through a small telescope or maybe even a good pair of binoculars," Jackson said. "You'll notice Venus exhibits beautiful phases, just as the moon does. Right now in fact, because where it's positioned with respect to us, it'll look like a very small crescent Venus. Because it's so close to us ... we're seeing most of its dark side, kind of like the moon. So you'll see a beautiful crescent shape."
Jupiter
Jupiter can be seen if you look straight up, and toward the southwest.
"If you go outside when it starts getting dark, and kind of look over your head ... relatively close overhead, you'll see Jupiter," said Jackson. "After Venus, Jupiter is the brightest object in the sky."
Mars
To find Mars, look toward the east for the constellation Gemini, and its two brightest stars that are the heads of the twins, Castor and Pollux.
"It'll almost look as if there's another head floating around, a kind of ruddy-colored head. That's Mars," Jackson said. "Mars will be relatively bright. It'll be brighter than Castor."
Mercury and Saturn
Mercury and Saturn are relatively close to the western horizon, so it will be very difficult to see them, according to Jackson.
"Mercury is always difficult to see, although at this time right now, it's at its best location for night viewing, but it's still very hard," she said. "It's not too far from Saturn, which we've been enjoying for months, but now, unfortunately, it's on its way down too. So they're both very low."
Feb. 28 is when Mercury "would be probably easiest to see," she said. "You can use Mercury to see Saturn that day, because the two of them are relatively close. But to be looking over in the western horizon, you may have trouble trying to figure out what are the planets and what are stars, because neither one of them is really super bright."
Uranus and Neptune
It may be possible to see Uranus with a telescope or high-powered binoculars, but Neptune "is on its way down.," said Jackson.
"Neptune, unfortunately, is like Mercury and Saturn, and is very close to the to the western horizon, so it'll be almost impossible to see," she said. "It's so dim that even if you were looking at it, you probably wouldn't recognize the fact that it's a planet. It's so far away from us ... it's really difficult to see."
As far as weather conditions go, if you're planning to head out to check out the night sky this week it won't be the temperatures that will hold you back. New England is seeing a stretch of relatively warm air to last through the work week with overnight lows staying mostly above freezing across Southern New England and in the 20s up north.
This is much improved from the last couple of weeks. What will play spoiler is the clouds with a handful of speedy storms zip through the region. Most nights will see partly cloudy to overcast skies this week as our weather pattern stays active. Scattered light snow showers are expected across Northern New England Monday night with a bit more widespread precipitation late Tuesday night.
Another weak storm enters the picture late Wednesday night, but likely holds off until after midnight. The fourth system of the week will be a quick clipper kicking off the weekend, calling for a lousy viewing party on Saturday night.
As of now, the only optimal nights to see the skies open up will be Wednesday evening before midnight and Friday evening, especially across western Mass., Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Of course you'll want to try and get away from light pollution, too.
If you missed this latest "planet parade," don't worry. There will be another multi-planet viewing opportunities coming up in late August 2025, when four planets will be visible at once before sunrise, according to NASA.