Planet Parade Above Oregon, Washington and Coastlines Now Through Early Feb

Published 01/25/25 at 9:56 p.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Newport, Oregon) – There are six of them all gathered in the skies right now: six planets from our solar system from now through early February creating what is called a “parade of planets.” (Above: Newport at night. Now is a good time to catch not just the stars but the glow of crab boats out there. Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

For a little while after dusk, you'll immediately spot Venus shining incredibly bright in the southwest. However, near it is Saturn, with Jupiter and Mars floating around as well. Those are the ones you can see. Hiding in the dark but visible with optics are Neptune and Uranus.

Right now, weather on the Oregon coast and Washington coast is cooperating – at least for a little while longer – literally giving you a stellar glimpse of our solar system buddies. They are not exactly lined up, so the term “alignment” being thrown around is quite a misnomer, and a “parade” of planets is not a real astronomy term, says NASA.

However, it's a very cool sight.

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“In the first couple of hours after dark, you’ll find Venus and Saturn in the southwest, Jupiter high overhead, and Mars in the east,” NASA said. “(Uranus and Neptune are there too, but a telescope is needed to see them.) Planets always appear along a line in the sky, so the 'alignment' isn’t special. What’s less common is seeing four or five bright planets at once, which doesn’t happen every year.”

Courtesy NASA

Having six in our skies is even more unusual, though the entire thing has been overhyped lately with claims of “rare” and “not happening again” for thousands of years.

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From areas like Portland, Eugene, Seaside, Long Beach, Kelso, Bandon or Newport, the extraordinary brightness of Venus is unmistakable. It's brighter than the moon sometimes and has lately caused some to think it's two stars right next to each other. Simply stepping outside onto your doorstep or from a brightly-lit parking lot will give you that encounter.

Jim Todd, astronomy expert with Portland's OMSI, talked about the degrees of brightness for each, measured in magnitude. The negative symbol (-) indicates more brightness and not less.

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“The planet Venus (-4 mag) will be the brightest, then Saturn (+1.5 mag), Jupiter (-2.78 mag), and then Mars (-0.95 mag),” Todd said. “These are easily visible to the human eye.”

If you're in a coastal town and have access to an oceanfront Jacuzzi or even just a balcony, this will be a visual treat. Mars is the plainly red one in the east – it's quite distinctive. Looking to the east from coastal burghs like Cannon Beach or Gold Beach won't be a problem in this situation because all are very high up just after dusk.

Later, by the wee hours of the morning, Venus will have dipped away but Mars remains and has gotten much higher in the skies.

This is not a bad time to catch the ISS as well. Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff saw it zipping through about 5:20 a.m one morning this past week.

Coastal areas and regions east of the Willamette Valley and I-5 Corridor may even get better views, as those parts tend to have less light pollution.

Todd suggests using binoculars or better yet a telescope to check them all out: you'll be able to at least see Uranus and Neptune but you should be able to even spot the moons of the larger gas giants.

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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