In the wake of Sunday’s “blood moon” total lunar eclipse, the rise of the full corn moon and a display of the Northern Lights in the U.S, skywatchers will be able to see a “planet parade” in the pre-dawn sky this week. As a bonus, the waning gibbous moon — a few days past full — will move through the planets one by one as it shrinks to a crescent.
The best time to look for the planet parade will be 45 minutes before the time of sunrise at your location, though it will be visible about two hours prior.
Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are currently in the planet parade. Mercury was part of it during August, but has since sunk back into the glare of the sun.
Venus and Jupiter will be the easiest to find. From about two hours before sunrise, Venus will be visible in the east and Jupiter in the southeast, with Saturn in the southwest.
Only Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are visible to the naked eye — with Neptune and Uranus requiring a telescope — though there is a bonus sight this week as the moon makes an appearance.
This is the last planet parade until October 2028, when five planets will be visible together, once again before sunrise.
Look southwest before sunrise on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, and you’ll see a 97%-lit waning gibbous moon just above Saturn, with Venus and Jupiter above east. In between will be the stars of Taurus and Orion, most notably the three bright stars of Orion’s Belt. On Friday, Sept. 12, the then 73%-lit moon will shine alongside the Pleiades, one of the most beautiful naked-eye star clusters in the night sky. The following morning, on Saturday, Sept. 13, a 62%-lit moon will be on the other side of the Pleiades.
You've heard of the Perseid meteor shower, but what about the Epsilon Perseid meteor shower? A less intense sibling of August's famous display of “shooting stars,” the Epsilon Perseid meteor shower peaks in the early hours of Tuesday, Sept. 9, and could see about five meteors per hour from the constellation Perseus.