Don’t be in the dark about this month’s planetary procession.

January boasts an impressive array of happenings, including the Quadrantid meteor, the moon occulting Mars and the full Wolf Moon. The most interesting occurrence just might be the parade of planets easily seen after the sun goes down.

As most of us know, planets circle the sun on their own orbits and they follow these paths at their own pace. These orbiting planets are relatively, but not exactly, in the same plane, some a bit higher and some, lower. The imaginary plane of the earth’s orbit around the sun is called an ecliptic. 

To understand ecliptic, think about a disk with concentric circles, like a CD or old-fashioned LP record. The planets travel in these circles, and looked at edge-on, our solar system appears relatively flat. Sometimes the location of planets in their orbits coincide and they end up or gather on the same side of the sun when viewed from the ecliptic. Even though they are not physically close in their orbit or their plane, they visually appear close.

When the planets do meet up, they can be seen in our sky at the same time. This visual gathering of the planets in the night sky is called an alignment, and the phenomenon is happening throughout the month of January. Alignments can include three to eight planets, and January is hosting six of them, though only four can be observed with the naked eye.

The sextet of planets seen nightly this month includes Venus, which can be seen in the southwest sky, Mars in the east, Jupiter overhead and Saturn in the southwest (all after dark, of course). Neptune and Uranus are also up there and nearby, and can be detected with a telescope. Alignments do happen regularly, but in this case their brightness and the ability to see them all at once are worth a look.

Even more rare is the alignment of eight planets. The last time that happened (within 30 degrees of each other) was January 1665 and it won’t happen again until March of 2673. Having planets align closer is a nonstarter since in order for them to be within 3.6 degrees, one would need a timeframe of 396 billion years. 

This has never happened and never will since our sun is expected to transform into a white dwarf six billion years from now. To temper any disappointment, check out our current six-planet alignment as a consolation prize and plan for Feb. 28 when seven planets will appear.

Another night that you will be able to see some sky sorcery will be on Jan. 17 and 18, when there will be a conjunction of Venus and Saturn.  Conjunctions are defined by the nearer pairing of the planets, rather than an alignment’s regional closeness. Those two planets’ conjunction will put them within 2.2 degrees of each other. That would be so close that only four moons would fit between the two planets.

All of these after dark activities give us reasons to bundle up and go outside. You have many evenings left in the month to pick the clearest (and warmest) nights, and it isn’t necessary to stay up late, since it is still getting dark early enough for even kids to not miss this astral alignment. Remind them, and yourself, that there is no reason to be afraid of the dark when the planets are shining so bright. 

Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, and author of Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature and The Nature of Martha’s Vineyard.