I pick out North America’s celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also apply to mid-northern latitudes in the northern hemisphere).

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The ‘Parade of Planets’ will be around until March, according to Anderson. The best time to view the phenomenon will be on Thursday and Saturday nights with mostly clear skies forecasted. Find stories like this and more, in our apps.

Both Venus and Saturn will be in the Aquarius constellation, the water bearer, during their close approach. To help spot it, viewers should look towards the south in the evening sky, using the bright star Fomalhaut in the nearby Piscis Austrinus constellation as a guide to locate Aquarius.

By early March, Saturn, Mercury, and Neptune will move too close to the Sun to be seen. Venus will also gradually become less visible, leaving Jupiter, Mars, and Uranus as the last to linger in ...

A famous illustration of Saturn's moon Titan got it all wrong. Never mind -- what we imagine space to be, and what we know it is, can both evoke the sublime.

So I grabbed my camera, ran outside, and looked up just as Mars was supposed to emerge from the Moon's curved horizon. Seen with the naked eye, the Moon's brightness far outshined Mars, casting soft shadows on a cold winter evening in East Texas.

Six planets will all be visible at once in the night sky this month, lined up across the sky—but one is set to disappear from view.

“Saturday evening, January 18: Venus and Saturn will appear nearest to each other. As evening twilight ends at 6:15 p.m. EST, Venus will be 30 degrees above the southwestern horizon with Saturn 2.2 degrees to the lower left. Saturn will set first on the western horizon almost 3 hours later at 9:04 p.m.”

Plus: Saturn’s moon Iapetus is visible, our Moon passes the bright star Spica, and Mars skims south of Pollux in Gemini in the sky this week.

A rare celestial event will occur tomorrow, with Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars aligning and visible to the naked eye.