How to see the 'parade of planets' on Tuesday

It's a phenomena that only happens every few years. Five planets aligned with the moon for what astronomers are calling a planetary parade. Our Rod Hill caught up with OMSI astronomy expert Jim Todd to get a better understanding of what's happening tonight. So join us this morning is Mr. Jim Todd who's the director of space science and education at OMSI. And Jim, we're hoping for clear skies tonight so we can get a view of the planets. Well, we have five planets that are going to be visible tonight and it's a great opportunity to see the gathering over in the western part of the sky.

So you don't have to sunset, look towards the west. So if you look west and if you're lucky to get a break in the clouds, you'll see the alignment starts with the moon at the very top. Mars follows underneath, which may be pretty easy to spot as it looks like a red star. The more difficult one to see though is Uranus. Venus will be right next to that and at its brightest magnitude, so pretty visible. Venus is actually visible most of the year, which is why it's called the evening star. Mercury and Jupiter will be visible just above the horizon for about an hour after sunset.

But here's the deal. We are in the Pacific Northwest, right? So because of cloudy conditions, it'll probably be pretty difficult to see the planets. So Todd recommends using a stargazing app to help you at least identify where they are in the sky. He says Google Sky is great and available on most smartphones. Another app to use would be SkyView Light, which can actually show you where the stars will be in your area all through your phone's camera. You just point it up. And then you go outside, turn on your location, and then you're to the GPS.

You point in the direction of the west and immediately it will show you where the planets are. And yeah, I can attest to how cool this is. SkyView Light. And this way, right at Brenda and Rod, and I'm looking right at Saturn. And it will tell you what you're looking at. See my rocks? Yeah, you can swing it all around. It may add the planets actually look cooler, to me personally, on your app.

I mean, little flicker maybe. But if you do want to see the planets, you know, the next time this will all be happening, the five planets all in alignment, it's going to be happening again June 17th. Hopefully we'll have clear skies at that point. Not great viewing expected tonight. But planets will be there aligned for a while. Apparently, Jim said tonight's the big highlight because of the location of the moon that will make everything more easily, for us to identify. Sure.

Okay, I got it. The moon kind of being your guiding point.

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