Look to the sky Friday night for the rare chance to see seven planets lined up. The big picture: Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars will appear together in a "planetary alignment" or "parade of planets" shortly after sunset Friday,

An alignment of seven planets will be visible in Friday's evening sky. Here's when and where to view the celestial phenomenon from Texas.

When we have five or more planets filing into a small sky area, an alignment is upgraded to parade status. Parade is not an official astronomical term and is used fast, loose and with a touch more whimsy than space experts usually allow for.