New Delhi

The year 2025 will be filled with some amazing celestial events that you would not want to miss if you love skygazing. From a spectacular planetary parade to a lunar eclipse, meteor showers and Supermoon, there is a lot to gear up for in the new year.

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Seven-planet parade

First up in January would be a planetary parade. You could see Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars all together in the night sky. They would remain visible till the end of February. Two other planets - Neptune and Uranus - would also be part of the alignment. However, these two would only be visible with a telescope. 

To catch the planets, look up after sunset, at around 8:30 pm local time. Venus, Saturn and Neptune will remain on the horizon for only some time and will go down between 11:30 pm to midnight. Mars, Jupiter and Uranus would stay up all night and slowly start setting as dawn approaches. Mars would be the last to go down.

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Also Read: Get ready for a planetary parade featuring all 7 of the other planets

The planetary parade will turn even more wonderful later on as Mercury joins them. All seven planets will be up, although only a few of them will be visible at a time because Saturn, Mercury and Neptune will be too close to the Sun when it sets. 

While the planets will remain in the sky for weeks, the best time to watch them is between January 21 and February 21. The most ideal time to watch them would be the week of January 29 during the new moon.

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Moon to block Mars

A lunar occultation is on the cards on January 13 when our moon would block the light of Mars for about an hour. This is the day of the full moon which will occult the red planet. If you carefully stay tuned to the sky, you would see Mars just to the moon’s left which would vanish soon after. This is because the moon would block the light of Mars.

It is an extremely rare occultation and might not be visible everywhere. The timings would also vary depending on where you are located.

Total lunar eclipse

March would bring with it a total lunar eclipse on the night of 13-14. The Earth will come directly between the Sun and full moon, casting a shadow onto the lunar surface. It would start as a partial lunar eclipse at 1:09 ET, at which point you would see the curved shadow of the Earth blocking out the moonlight. It will reach totality from 2:26 am until 3:31 am, changing its colour to orange-ish.

Lyrid and Orionid meteor showers

Two meteor showers will be visible in 2025 - a Lyrid Meteor Shower and an Orionid Meteor Shower. On April 22-23, the Lyrids will put on a spectacular show of shooting stars originating from the constellation Lyra the Harp.

On Oct 21-22, the Orionid Meteor Shower would peak. Chances of watching the shooting stars would be higher since the moon would be nearly invisible. 

Supermoon

And towards the close of 2025, a Supermoon awaits us on November 5.