5 Planets Are Currently Visible In The Montana Sky

They don't call Montana Big Sky Country for nothing!

On most clear nights here in the Treasure State, you can generally see at least one planet in the night sky.

On special occasions, four or even five planets can align in the night sky, creating quite the spectacle!

Planetary Parade

As the name implies, a planetary parade is simply a visual lineup of planets in the night sky.

You may not realize it but the planets appear along a curved line in the night sky simply because our solar system is a flat, disc-shaped plane.

Since we're observing these planets in this plane, the planets appear to be in a curved line.

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Will the Planets Be Visible?

Before you decide to head out and freeze in a Montana winter night, you'll need to consider how high the planets appear on the horizon.

To be clearly visible with the naked eye the planets need to be at least 10° or higher above the horizon.

Which Planets Are Visible In Montana

Over the next few nights these five planets should be visible to the naked eye.

• Mercury
• Venus
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn

According to NASA more major planets should be visible if you have a telescope.

Uranus and Neptune are a bit too faint to see with the naked eye, but a good telescope should give you a great view of these additional planets.

January/February 2025 Planet Parade

The current planet lineup will begin to fade in mid-February.

Saturn will be the first planet to sink slightly lower on the horizon.

By late February, Saturn will be less than 10° above the horizon, making it very difficult to see.

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