How The Quad Cities Can Catch The ‘Planet Parade’ Happening Saturday

Also: how to keep the kids entertained for 5 minutes this weekend.

An "uncommon" planetary event is coming up this Saturday (February 28th). It's called a 'planet parade', and will consist of 6 planets lining up.

NASA says planets aligning happens every few months, which includes 3-5 planets in a row but these 'parades' with 6-7 planets lining up aren't something we see all the time.

When To See It

Go look for the line of planets about 30 minutes-1 hour after sunset (which is set to be about 5:51 p.m. in Davenport). Look towards the western sky. The planets lining up will be: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Venus, and Mercury.

You'll be able to see a few with the naked eye but not all of them. Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury are the ones you should be able to see unaided.

The planet parade will sit low on the horizon, close to the sun, and only visible briefly. The moon is supposed to be super bright on Saturday night (90.6% illumination) which could make it harder for you to see the planets.

Why It Happens

Now for the science talk: planet parades happen because planets orbit the sun at different speeds continuously along the same path. From Earth, the planets look like they're aligning when they eventually catch up to one another.

How To Not Get Crap Cosmic Phone Pics

If you've ever tried, you know any pictures you try to take of the moon or whatever's lighting up the sky is kind of impossible. I found several suggestions on how to curtail that.

Basically, the tips are these:

• Put your phone on a stable tripod
• Enable 'Night' mode
• Set the exposure to 30 seconds
• Use maximum zoom (6x-10x)

Of course, if you want super good pictures of planets, you'll have to invest in a super powerful camera.