There is very little left until the spectacular astronomical event of the alignment of the planets on January 25, 2025. The event promises a spectacle, with six planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune simultaneously visible (although Uranus and Neptune not to the naked eye) in the evening sky starting at sunset until about 8.30pm. The best time to observe the sky he goes from 6.30pm to 7.30pmwhen the Sun will have set for about an hour and the 6 planets will all find each other quite high on the horizonall at more than 20°. The event will be visible to the naked eye And from all over Italyalthough the only planets actually visible to the naked eye will be Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The great apparent brightness of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will make them visible even from a city sky.
Let’s remember that the term planetary alignment is somewhat improper since the 6 planets will not be aligned in a straight line in space, but will simply be all visible at the same time in heaven, for they will be found on the same side of the Solar System compared to the Earth, as can be seen from the image on the cover. The next planetary alignment will happen as early as next month (February 28, 2025).
Where and when to observe the January 25 alignment
The January 25 planetary alignment spectacle begins shortly after sunset, when the sky is dark enough to reveal 4 of the 6 planets visible to the naked eye. At sunsetwe will have Mars in an east/northeast direction, Jupiter and Uranus in a south-east direction, Venus, Saturn and Neptune in a south-west direction. The best time to observe the alignment goes from 6.30pm to 7.30pmsince in this time slot all 6 planets will be quite high (more than 20 degrees) above the horizon. At this time, Mars will have moved eastward at 30 degrees above the horizon, Jupiter and Uranus will be southeastward at more than 60 degrees, while Neptune, Venus, and Saturn will be halfway between westward and southward. -west.
The first of the planets Saturn will set around 8.30pm, followed 10 and 20 minutes later from Venus and Neptunerespectively. By that time Jupiter and Uranus will have moved 70 degrees above the horizon in a southerly direction, while Mars will have reached 50 degrees in a south-eastern direction. The next planet to set will be Uranus at approximately 2.15am, followed by Jupiter at 3:40. Mars, however, will set coinciding with the rising of the Sun. This is not a coincidence, but rather the result of the fact that Mars is in these days close to opposition, that is, in a position opposite to the Sun with respect to the Earth, which makes it entirely visible the night.

If you do not have the opportunity to go to a suitable place to observe the astronomical phenomenon, it will be possible to observe it in live streaming for example in the channels of Virtual Telescope Project led by Gianluca Masi.
How to find the 6 planets in the sky
Identifying the 6 planets during the alignment (in the 6.30pm-7.30pm range) will be quite easy if you follow our instructions. The easier to locate it is definitely the planet Venusbeing the brightest star in the sky at that time. It will shine with a magnitude of -4.4 halfway between the west and south-west directions. Saturn it will be easily identifiable as a brilliant star slightly lower than Venus (about 5 degrees), shining with a magnitude of 1.1. Neptune is located near this pair of planets, but unfortunately it will not be visible to the naked eye. Equipping yourself with at least binoculars, it will be identifiable a few degrees to the top left of Venus.
Moving on to Jupiterit will be identifiable as a bright star at approximately 70 degrees high on the southeast horizon. To locate it you need to start right from the south-east horizon and continue along the vertical. We will thus first encounter the star Sirius, the brightest in the sky, then the constellation of Orion and finally Jupiter itself, near the star Aldebaran del Toro. A little further up on the right, Jupiter is accompanied by the Pleiades star cluster and just to the right of the latter, at about 20 degrees, it will be possible to identify (not with the naked eye) Uranus.
We conclude with the red planet, Mars. It will be identifiable in heading east about 30 degrees above the horizon in the company of the stars Castor and Pollux of the constellation Gemini. Identification is simple, both because it will be located on the vertical of the east cardinal point, and because it has the unmistakable reddish color from which the term red planet derives.