Planet-observing is easy and fun

Sometimes when you’re out gazing at the brightest objects in the night sky, you’re seeing the planets without knowing it. There are five planets you can view without optical aid: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These are the classical planets that the ancients knew. They watched these planets “wander” across the sky, seemingly unattached to the stars and constellations. In fact, the word planet is from the ancient Greek word planete that means wanderer. Four of the planets are visible in the morning sky in August 2026. And our brightest planet dazzles in the western evening sky after dark.

Yes, Uranus and Neptune are up there in the morning sky, too, but few will see them. Uranus is theoretically visible to the eye, but most often seen in binoculars or a telescope. Find a printable finder chart for Uranus here.

Neptune is even fainter than Uranus. You need a telescope to see Neptune. Notice the drop-down menu on this same page. It’ll let you create a finder chart for Neptune, and the other planets, too.

Best time to look for planets?

The fact is, any night under a cloud-free sky is a great time to look for planets. There’s often a planet or two, or more, up in some part of the sky for much of the night (if not all night). And the August 2026 morning sky is particularly planet-laden, with three easy planets, one harder one, and two requiring optical aid! It’s a veritable planet parade!

**Tip: The bright planets are often (but not always) brighter than the brightest stars. **

Tip: Watch for planetary pairings. For example, Jupiter and Mars are closest together in the morning sky – in the twilight shortly before sunrise – on August 15.

Tip: Is it true planets don’t twinkle? Yep! Stars twinkle, but planets generally shine as a steady light.

How will you know where to find planets at any given time? Visit EarthSky’s visible planets and night sky guide. It’s updated daily.

Keep reading to meet each planet and learn a few tips on what to look for.

Mercury: Never far from the sun

Of the five classical planets, Mercury is the most elusive. By that we mean you have to look for it in the right place and at the right time. That’s because Mercury is innermost to the sun, so we on Earth never see Mercury stray far from the sun in our night sky. Mercury is sometimes visible after sunset, when it’s following the sun below the western horizon. Or, it’s up in the east, leading the sun up from behind the dawn horizon.

In early-August 2026, Mercury is in the east before sunrise. It’ll be easiest to spot around August 2 when it reaches its greatest elongation from the sun. This morning elongation of Mercury is best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere. And it’ll appear near Jupiter starting around mid-month. They’ll be closest on August 15.

TIP: Observe Mercury from 1st to last

It’s fun to observe Mercury from the time it first appears – either in the west after sunset or east before dawn – through the time it’s farthest from the sun (greatest elongation) – and back to when it disappears again into the sunset or sunrise glare. During these times, Mercury makes a great loop in the morning or evening twilight sky. Every Mercury apparition is a little different, depending on the time of year, your location on Earth and other factors. Mercury’s greatest elongation in the morning sky (east before sunrise), on August 2, 2026, is best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere.

TIP: A telescope reveals Mercury as a disk

As Mercury comes and goes in our sky – and as we and it travel around the sun – a telescope will show you a changing size for the disk of Mercury. Just be sure that the sun is completely below the horizon before you start searching for Mercury with a telescope. Its angular diameter (its size as seen on our sky’s dome) varies from 4.5 to 13.0 arcseconds.

TIP: The phases of Mercury (and Venus)

Mercury and Venus, being inner planets, show phases like the moon. This happens around the time of their inferior conjunctions (when they pass between us and the sun). Mercury’s last inferior conjunction was July 13, 2026. So that means you might see Mercury’s growing phases as the planet races away from the sun this month. You’ll need a telescope to see the phases of Mercury.

Venus: Brightest planet

Venus is the brightest planet we can see from Earth. It outshines all the stars. When it’s close to the horizon (which it often is, being closer to the sun than Earth), people frequently mistake it for a plane with its landing lights on.

This neighboring planet is so bright because of its thick clouds and because of how close the planet is to us. It’s our nearest planetary neighbor in the solar system.

Venus is currently in the evening sky, incredibly bright, above the western horizon after sunset. It’ll grace our evening sky through October. Then, Venus moves to the morning sky starting in November 2026.

TIP: Watch for Venus pairings

Venus looks especially beautiful when it pairs up with a crescent moon or another planet. Venus and Jupiter had a close conjunction on June 8 and 9, 2026. And, the moon will pass close to Venus next on August 16, 2026. Visit EarthSky’s visible planets and night sky guide regularly to learn the dates of those pairings.

TIP: Venus phases

Like Mercury, through a telescope, Venus shows phases. Its apparent size in our sky changes, much like Mercury, but even more dramatically than Mercury. Venus is so close and so bright that, even with steadily held binoculars, you can sometimes see that Venus is something other than round. If you looked at Venus through a telescope this evening (July 31, 2026), you’d see it in a 56%-illuminated phase. The phase of Venus will shrink between now and when it will pass between Earth and the sun in October, 2026. Afterwards, it’ll emerge in the east before sunrise in late October 2026, but will be easier to spot in November.

TIP: Venus at greatest brilliancy

Venus will reach what astronomers call greatest brilliancy on the evening of September 18, 2026. That’s when the overall largeness of its disk balanced with the planet’s shrinking phase, so that we saw Venus as an eerie bright light in our twilight sky. The next time Venus will next be at its brightest again – this time in the morning sky – is in November 2026

Mars: The red planet

Mars is the most fascinating of the visible planets to watch with the unaided eye. That’s because it’s the planet next-outward from Earth in orbit around the sun. It’s not a very large world (smaller than Earth), and so its brightness changes dramatically throughout its visible cycle.

Mars is currently in the eastern morning sky. It’s red in color and growing in brightness, rising a while before sunrise. It lies near the bright star Aldearan in Taurus the Bull. In August, Mars will blend in with other 1st-magnitude stars, as it grows and brightens heading toward its next opposition in February 2027. That’s when Earth will fly between Mars and the sun. Now Earth is catching up with Mars in our smaller, faster orbit around the sun. And as a result, Mars is brightening day by day and will become visible all night in February 2027. Then it’ll be visible in the evening sky through the end of 2027.

TIP: Mars is RED

The most distinctive feature of Mars to the unaided eye is its reddish color. When you view Mars from a dark-sky location, its color really pops. The red color is what drew the ancients to name the planet for the god of war. Iron oxide in the rocks, the same compound that makes rust and blood reddish on Earth, makes the surface of Mars look red, too.

TIP: Mars is round

Binoculars mounted on a tripod can show you Mars’ round disk shape. Binoculars will also accentuate Mars’ red color. Unlike Venus and Mercury, Mars doesn’t show a changing phase. That’s because it orbits one step outward from Earth. So we never see Mars go beteween us and the sun.

TIP: A telescope reveals Mars’ surface

If you want to see surface features on Mars, you’re going to need a telescope. White patches on Mars are generally ice caps or clouds. Percival Lowell thought the dark areas of Mars were canals built by Martians to carry water across the surface. Others thought the dark spots were a sign of vegetation. Various spacecraft that have studied the red planet revealed that the dark markings come from a variety of sources, such as dark volcanic basalt or landslides, but not from life. And you can expect to see more detail on Mars when it’s near opposition since it has a larger apparent size then.

Jupiter: Biggest planet with visible moons

Jupiter will be ascending in the morning sky around mid-August, inching toward a close conjunction with Mercury on the morning of August 15. Since Jupiter is much brighter than all the stars, it’s very easy to spot. Jupiter lies in front of the constellation Cancer the crab.

Jupiter was at its brightest for 2026 in January and will be at its brightest again in February 2027.

TIP: Optical aid will reveal Jupiter’s moons

Even the smallest telescope will reveal the four largest moons of Jupiter. Binoculars will also let you glimpse a moon or two, especially if you’re looking in a pure, dark sky. The Galilean moons, as they’re known, are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Nightly observing will show them constantly changing places as they whirl around the giant planet, sometimes passing in front of or behind Jupiter. These occultations and transits can also involve the shadows of the moons visible on the planet’s disk when viewed through a larger telescope.

TIP: Look for Jupiter’s Red Spot

The surface of Jupiter is also worth a look through a telescope. You’ll need a larger size telescope to make out the Great Red Spot, but smaller ‘scopes will still show you the light and dark belts and zones that ring the giant planet.

Saturn: Golden color, magnificent rings

Saturn is the faintest of the bright planets, and it’s currently rising after sunset in the evening sky so it’s easy to spot through dawn. You can’t see Saturn’s rings without a telescope. What can you notice about Saturn with the eye alone? Be sure to notice its golden color and steady light. It’ll be at its best in October 2026 when it reaches opposition and it’ll be visible all night.

TIP: Notice the ring angle

Saturn is called the planet of the rings with good reason. The rings of Saturn are magnificent! As the years pass, and we and Saturn both orbit the sun, the angle of the rings changes with respect to Earth. Sometimes we see the north face of the rings, and sometimes the south face. Sometimes, the rings turn their razor-thin edge to us, and virtually disappear. We can’t overstate how glorious Saturn’s rings are to see. They make the planet look twice as big as it would without them.

TIP: Look for Cassini’s Division

With a small telescope, on a night of good seeing, you can make out a gap in the rings, called the Cassini Division.

TIP: Notice the shadow cast by the rings

With a small telescope, you can also look for a shadow of the rings cast onto the planet, or a shadow of the planet cast onto the rings. Now we’re having fun!

TIP: Look for Saturn’s large moon

Titan is Saturn’s brightest moon and it’s visible in telescopes. It is possible to see up to six more of Saturn’s moons through telescopes. And right now is a favorable time to see the shadow of Titan on the clouds of Saturn.

Uranus: A different pale blue dot

Carl Sagan described Earth as a pale blue dot when looking at a Voyager 1 image of our planet as the spacecraft sped out of the solar system. For us on Earth looking out at the solar system, the 7th planet from the sun, Uranus, appears as nothing more than a pale blue dot. And that’s through a telescope! With the eye alone, you can sometimes pick out Uranus from among the stars. But, to do it, you need absolutely pristine, dark skies.

TIP: Try searching when Uranus is paired

Uranus is easier to find when close to the moon or a bright planet. In August 2026, it’s between the Hyades and the Pleiades star clusters.

TIP: Larger telescope show the moons

With a telescope, the surface features and rings of Uranus can’t be seen. But some larger telescopes will pick up a couple of Uranus’ moons. A medium to large size telescope might show you Titania and Oberon. They are the largest moons of Uranus and orbit far enough from the planet that you can distinguish them as separate points of light.

Neptune: Farthest major planet from the sun

And finally, Neptune is the biggest observing challenge on the list, but it’s not hard to see with optical aid and a guide star or planet. When Neptune is close to an object that’s easy to pick out of the night sky, say, Venus, you can pick it up easily in binoculars. If you have keen eyesight, binoculars will show it as a disk with a darker blue hue.

TIP: Neptune has been near Saturn

Neptune in August 2026 is near Saturn in the morning sky. It’s located about 10.5 degrees west of the planet.

Bottom line: Get our top tips for planet observing, from innermost and elusive Mercury out to faint blue Neptune … and everything in between.