Cannon Beach is at the West Coast of Oregon and about 1.5 hours of drive time from Portland. It is a very popular beach getaway location for people who live in Portland area and the main street of Cannon Beach has several charming shops. Cannon Beach is also a great place for viewing the stars due to the wide open sky along the beach and the low light pollution in the area. The only caveat is that it can get cold and windy at night due to being along the coast.
In 2025, there is an astronomical phenomenon called planetary alignment. At the end of January, there is a 6 planets alignment and we can see all 6 planets in the night sky. This includes Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn. Then a month later at the end of February, Mercury will join and appear in the sky as well!
We got to Cannon Beach around 4:30PM and the sun was about to set below the horizon. It was great to see the sunset along the coast. Luckily it was not very windy and thus we didn't have to wear thick jacket.
When the sunset and during the twilight hour, we started seeing people setting up bonfire along the beach. We looked up the night sky and we could see the 2 brightest stars. The one on the West (right) and near the horizon is Venus. It was the brightest star! Then the bright one above us was Jupiter. It was not as bright as Venus but it was quite obvious to us.
Then on the far left near the East (left) and up in the sky is Mars. It appeared as a little red dot in the sky and thus it was obvious for us to tell that it was Mars! Saturn was on the West, right below Venus. We could see it as a small dot in the sky. Neptune was also on the West, it was right above Venus. We could not really see Neptune with our naked eye, but it appeared like a blue dot on the photo. Uranus was a tough one to spot. It supposed to be right above us but due to being so dim in the sky without any special way to identify it, we could not really tell which star is Uranus.
It was an amazing experience seeing the planetary alignment and this is not something that would happen every year! We definitely would try to do this again at the end of February to see Mercury!