Stargazers in Hong Kong to witness rare alignment of 4 planets

Hong Kong residents will have the rare opportunity to observe four of the brightest planets in the solar system with the naked eye until February, with the city’s space museum hosting a live stream of the astronomical event on Friday.

The phenomenon, known as a planetary parade, is an event where several planets appear visible in the night sky at the same time.

“The eight planets orbit around the sun, but they all orbit around it at different speeds. When they are moving at varying speeds, there will be times when different planets will appear in the same night sky,” said Leung Wing-mo, a former assistant director of the Hong Kong Observatory.

“This parade of the planets is a bit more special as the brightest planets are all here, which are Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars.”

Leung noted that parades occurred every year, but their rarity was determined by the number of planets that could be seen.

Kenneth Chiu Kam-hung, an assistant curator at the Hong Kong Space Museum, said the public would eventually be able to see six planets by the end of February, with the two additional ones being Neptune and Uranus.