The Parade Of Planets: Illinois’ Best Chance To View Them Is Now

My wife Amy is a stargazer. Well, maybe that's a bit too narrow of a description. She's someone who is always excited to go outside at night, or early in the morning, to catch meteor showers, super moons, comets, eclipses (lunar and solar), the two or three chances each year we have of seeing the Aurora Borealis, and of course happening right now, the Parade of Planets.

Illinois has been grinding our way through some seriously cold temperatures, especially at night. Well, one of the things that keeps the nights so frigid is that we've had very little cloud-cover, which generally keeps surface temperatures warmer by acting like insulation.

No cloud cover keeps us colder, but allows for much, much better viewing of things like the Parade of Planets. The good news right now is that we're in the midst of a whole bunch of very clear nights, so viewing of the Parade of Planets here in Northern Illinois should be pretty spectacular.

Let's Get To The Specifics Of Which Planets You'll Be Able To See, And More Importantly, When The Best Viewing Times Are In Northern Illinois

For the next several weeks, there will be six total planets that you'll be able to see during 2025's Parade of Planets. Four of the planets can be seen by the naked eye, and two others will require a telescope or powerful binoculars. We did have a Parade of Planets last June, but only two of the planets could be seen without special equipment.

So this parade is already better than the one in June. Parades of planets aren't rare, but they don't happen every year either. Here's what you can see this time:

• Venus (naked eye)
• Mars (naked eye)
• Jupiter (naked eye)
• Saturn (naked eye)
• Uranus (telescope or binoculars)
• Neptune (telescope or binoculars)

As for the best Illinois viewing times for the Parade of Planets 2025, I've got great news for those who hate to stay up really late or get up really early for these sorts of things: You don't have to.

The best time to look up is between 5:30pm and 7pm.

NBCChicago:

Any clear, cloudless night this month is ideal to spot the planets. To get in on the sighting, go outside on a clear night a few hours after sunset and face south, said Kevin Williams, planetarium director at Buffalo State University.

Venus and Saturn will glow in the southwestern sky, with Jupiter in the southern sky and Mars in the southeast or east. The planets will shine brighter than the stars, and Mars will look like a reddish-orange dot.

A faint Mercury is set to join the parade as a bonus seventh planet at the end of February, and the planets will slowly make their exit through the spring.