Ahoy, from the good ship Azamara Onward headed south in the Pacific Ocean for French Polynesia.

Wednesday night the “Parade of Planets” was in full and spectacular view.

In the southwest sky, glorious Venus was ablaze with dimmer Saturn getting closer for their celestial rendezvous. As an added and unexpected bonus, the zodiacal light made a stunning appearance to cap off an already awe-inspiring view.

Following the planetary parade to the east, next up was Jupiter, high and bright among the stars of Taurus the Bull and the Pleiades.

At the end of the parade of planets was bright and reddish-orange Mars in the east on the horizon. Mars was at opposition — directly opposite the sun — Wednesday night.

The red planet was lined up with the two brightest stars in Gemini, the twins — Castor and Pollux — for an eye-catching sight of the three of them.

All my photos were taken with an iPhone Pro Max 15 and no editing was done. They are straight from the sky to you.

I hope you can get outside and see the “planetary parade” for yourself as it is pretty cool to see four of the five naked eye planets from horizon to horizon. Mercury, the fifth naked eye planet, is in the predawn sky.

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