By Emily Hawkins • February 28, 2026 • Share
February 28 brings one of the most captivating sky events of the year. For a brief window after sunset, six planets — Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Jupiter — appear together in the evening sky, stretched along the ecliptic like luminous pearls across twilight.
This is not a perfectly straight-line alignment in space. The planets remain separated by billions of kilometers. But from our vantage point on Earth, they gather along the same arc of sky — creating what astronomers call a planet parade.
And tonight, the parade is underway.
Jupiter shines unmistakably bright near the twin stars of Gemini. It glows beside a nearly full Moon, creating one of the most eye-catching pairings of the night. Jupiter is the anchor of this alignment — bold, brilliant, impossible to miss.
For many skywatchers, this will be the easiest planet to identify. Simply step outside after sunset, face east, and look for the brightest “star” in that part of the sky.
Higher in the sky, Uranus sits quietly in Taurus, beneath the famous Pleiades star cluster. Unlike Jupiter or Venus, Uranus is subtle. To most observers, binoculars will be necessary to separate it from the surrounding star field.
Finding Uranus adds an extra layer of reward to the evening — a reminder that not all celestial treasures reveal themselves easily.
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