5-planet parade to grace the sky Saturday morning. How rare is that?

There might be reason for you to wake up early this weekend: In a rare celestial occurrence, five major planets will align to grace the eastern sky Saturday morning.

Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune will be visible to North Texans an hour before sunrise — about 5:20 a.m.

The five-planet parade is known as a planetary alignment, an event in which several planets gather closely on one side of the sun, said Matt Siegler, a planetary astronomer at Southern Methodist University. When five or six planets can be seen, it’s known as a large planetary alignment.

“What’s happening tonight is that there’s going to be five of them closely clustered together just before dawn,” he said.

How rare is planetary alignment?

It’s pretty uncommon, Siegler said.

“It’s not something that happens every year,” he said.

An alignment of five planets may occur every 10 or 20 years; however, a similar one happened this March.

The next time five planets will be seen close to each other won’t be until Sept. 8, 2040, according to astronomy site Star Walk.

When can you see it?

Saturday morning is your best bet for catching all five planets at once.

Jupiter and Saturn, two of the brightest planets in our solar system, will likely be the easiest to spot in the eastern sky. However, Neptune and Uranus might be harder to see to the naked eye and may require a pair of binoculars.

In order to see them, be sure you’re outside during the peak time, an hour before sunrise when the sky is still dark. Unlike stars, planets don’t twinkle in the dark sky, so be sure you’re tilting your head in the right direction.

Clear skies are in the forecast for early Saturday, which could help with visibility.

“It’s a fun thing to see and hopefully we get clear skies to be able to see it,” Siegler said.