_0.jpg)
Usually, equipment affords the space enthusiast a view of special celestial events.
This week, however, one’s eyes will do.
At sundown on February 28th, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus will align, and the event will be viewable (with the exceptions of Neptune and Uranus) to the naked eye. Kenton Dyck, an astronomy expert from the area who heads Astro Club, says the alignment is “not particularly common.”
The astronomer says the last time the planets aligned was approximately a decade ago. Accordingly, Friday evening is the perfect opportunity to get outside for a luminous spectacle that will disappear again for another stretch of time.
What to expect
A good strategy to see the alignment is to seek out Saturn in the night sky first.
“What's going to happen is if you go out just at sundown, you'll look over to the west and you'll see Saturn just as it's about to go down below the horizon,” says Dyck. “If you look the other way, you can see Mars all the way to the east.”
Dyck says that the viewing can also be enhanced by “even a rudimentary” pair of binoculars.
Wobbling rings
Although Saturn can be seen with the naked eye during this particular astronomical event, Dyck says that for other viewing opportunities, its star feature — its rings — will disappear for a while.
“Saturn has a wobble to it, and the rings are actually facing us. By fall of this year, we will be looking at the rings edge on, so they’ll essentially be invisible,” he says.
According to Dyck, it will take a bit of time for them to appear again.
“Over the next seven years, it will wobble the other way, and the rings will get more and more pronounced,” he says. “Then they'll reach their max, and it'll start to wobble the other way. It'll just continue that cycle over and over.”
'He didn't know what was going to happen'
Recently, Saturn was also involved in an act of kindness that illustrated the beauty of the planet and how sought-after it is to view and also fulfilled Dyck’s objective of Astro Club all in one.
In the autumn of 2024, Dyck provided a dream viewing to a local viewer named John.
“During the solar eclipse, there was a gentleman that came out to one of the events, and as we were looking, unfortunately, the clouds weren't quite cooperating, but I did have a chance to talk to him, and he had mentioned that he had always wanted to see the rings of Saturn,” he says.
“Where he grew up, looking through a telescope had just never been an option, and so little did he know, after the event was finished, I talked to his wife.”
Dyck asked John’s wife when his birthday was. It happened to be in the fall.
“I told her [to bring him to my place] when it was his birthday,” he says. “[I said,] ‘We will set up the telescope ... and see the rings of Saturn. With the 12-inch Dobsonian, we can easily make that happen.’”
A little while later, John’s wife brought him over for his birthday to help him accomplish his lifelong goal of seeing the rings.
“He didn't know what was going to happen,” says Dyck.
The experience is just the type of community connection the astronomer hopes to achieve with his club.
“I think that's really what it's about — getting people an opportunity to see something that they wouldn't have had an opportunity to see normally,” he says. “That's the entire point of the Astro Club.”
For Dyck, whether someone is looking up at the planets aligning on Friday or gazing at Saturn’s rings through a telescope, one wonder of being involved in astronomy (beyond breathtaking views) is sharing the experience.
With files from Jayme Giesbrecht and Ty Hildebrand