It’s a lucky day for skywatchers as all the planets in our solar system will grace tonight’s night sky, in a rare astronomical event.

You can see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn simultaneously with the naked eye, while the two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, can be observed with binoculars or a telescope.

Yesterday, Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars could all be seen in that order in the northern hemisphere with the naked eye, starting from the southwestern horizon and moving east.

Uranus, located between Mars and Jupiter, and Neptune, which is between Saturn and Jupiter, can be seen with binoculars or a telescope until the end of the year.

On Wednesday night, all the planets appeared only 1.5 degrees apart and are set to reach conjunction – their closest point – tonight on Thursday at 9 pm GMT.

How to spot the planets?

Train your eyes on the lower part of the sky in the west where you’re most likely to spot the planets.

The clearest view is expected to be about 30 minutes after sunset, with Venus disappearing about 40 minutes later, each day until the end of the year.

Mercury will be the hardest to spot with the naked eye, as it is sitting in a bright part of the sky. However, you can still spot it close to its much brighter neighbour, Venus.

The rest of the planets will line up eastwards, with Jupiter appearing brighter than all of the stars and high in the southern sky.

Mars will appear red and brighter than most stars while Saturn, the second largest planet, will be a golden colour when it appears in the southwest after darkness falls each day until 2023.

Even if you’re an amateur sky gazer, you can spot the planets with the help of a number of sky-scanning apps.

Some of the sky scanning apps you can download are:

• Stellarium on the App Store or Play Store
• Star Walk 2 on the App Store or Play Store
• Sky Guide on the App Store
• SkyView Lite on the App Store or Play Store
• SkySafari on the App Store or Play Store

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