The recent and much-ballyhooed "planetary parade" was an interesting celestial event that likely spurred even infrequent skywatchers to seek out the seven planets stretched out across the sky.
Some of the planets — like Venus, Jupiter and Mars — were relatively easy to spot because of their great brilliance. Others, like Mercury and Saturn, were a bit more difficult to see because they were quite low to the west-southwest horizon against a rather bright twilight sky. And the two remaining planets, Uranus and Neptune, could be sighted only by observers with good binoculars or a backyard telescope. Plus, they needed to know exactly where in the sky to look.
