Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Mars, and the Moon align in planetary parade

Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Mars, and the Moon aligned in an arc across the evening sky on Monday, with a “planetary parade” visible to the naked eye.

The phenomenon was visible after sunset in the west with the alignment set to continue throughout the week.

The north of Scotland and the islands were the best place to see the alignment with Mercury and Jupiter quick to disappear over the horizon.

The “planetary parade” was also visible from Edinburgh, with Proffesor Catherine Heymans, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland watching the event from Portobello beach.

She told the BBC: “Planet spotting on a crystal clear night along with so many other planetary parade enthusiasts was an absolute delight.”

Jake Foster from Royal Observatory Greenwich said such alignments were very particular to our perspective from Earth.

"The planets aren't aligned right now, they are all spread out across the Solar System but just from our perspective, every once in a while they get close enough to each other in the sky that we're able to see quite a few at once.”