Illinois Has A Great View Of A Parade Of Planets Starting Friday

The last time that Illinois residents had a chance to check out a "Parade of Planets," it was incredibly cold, windy, and worst of all--cloudy. Stargazers were left disappointed, but now at the end of February, 2025, and going through early March, there's another opportunity to check out something really cool in the night sky while enjoying warmer temps and clearer skies.

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.

Illinoisans had been grinding our way through some seriously cold temperatures, especially at night back in January. Now, at the very end of February and heading into March, our temperatures have warmed up a little bit, and the skies over the next few nights look to be clear of cloud cover.

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 days, there will be seven 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.

So this parade is already better than one we had back in June of 2024. 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)
• Mercury (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.