The planets are aligned.

All the planets in the solar system are supposedly all lined up at the moment. The sky is clear and there are plenty of bright lights but I don't know what I'm looking at.

Does anybody know which lights are planets?

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WandererTony · 56-60, M

The reddish one is Mars and the bright one just after sunset or just before sunrise on the horizon toward the sun is Venus.

Typically planets dont twinkle like stars, or so i was told in school. They have a steady light. I still do not know why, though. 😀

Now about the alignment. I doubt whether we can see them in a straight line because Venus and Mercury have an orbit smaller than ours and the rest are after the earth. Now how can we possibly see all in a straight line!! They are on opposite sides of earth, right?

Ok, just checked the net. Link here:

https://www.cnet.com/science/how-to-see-january-21-planet-parade-six-planets-in-alignment

This answers your question I guess.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@WandererTony They are not in a straight line, simply all visible on the same nights, and yes, in different directions although for a time very roughly in an East-West band.

What you told at school is not quite right. The twinkling is not by the bodies' own actions but by scattering and absorbtion effects of their light by our atmosphere. This is more likely to affect how we see the stars because they are far smaller and fainter than the larger of our neighbouring planets, but any distant point of light such as street-lamps some miles away can seem to twinkle.

WandererTony · 56-60, M

@ArishMell Amazing how we get misled in school and it stays for a lifetime.
What would i have done without SW 😀