Since the middle of the month, four of the five brightest planets in the night sky have been visible after sunset and will continue to "line up" through the end of the month. The best chance to see these four planets and the two hiding in the dark (Neptune and Uranus) will occur around the 21st and 22nd in the southern sky after sunset,

Venus and Saturn will be in conjunction this weekend, appearing side by side in the night sky during January's post-sunset "planet parade."

Alignments of five or more planets are rare—there will be two more featuring five or more planets this year, but after that the next won’t happen until 2040.

“Saturday evening, January 18: Venus and Saturn will appear nearest to each other. As evening twilight ends at 6:15 p.m. EST, Venus will be 30 degrees above the southwestern horizon with Saturn 2.2 degrees to the lower left. Saturn will set first on the western horizon almost 3 hours later at 9:04 p.m.”

Both Venus and Saturn will be in the Aquarius constellation, the water bearer, during their close approach. To help spot it, viewers should look towards the south in the evening sky, using the bright star Fomalhaut in the nearby Piscis Austrinus constellation as a guide to locate Aquarius.

We're not getting the "planetary alignment" everyone's been talking about it on social media the last few weeks, sorry. But throughout January there have been four bright planets all visible at the same time in the night sky,

Plus: Saturn’s moon Iapetus is visible, our Moon passes the bright star Spica, and Mars skims south of Pollux in Gemini in the sky this week.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot storm, which usually appears dark-red, can be seen shining a lurid blue color in an ultraviolet image of the planet.

Six planets will be in alignment this weekend, with four of them shining bright in one sweeping view. What to know about the planet parade.

Research and development is underway to create robots that can hunt for signs of life in the vast oceans that exist under the thick ice shells of bodies like Europa.

Rare planetary alignment featuring Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars promises celestial splendour in the southern hemisphere's twilight skies.