How often are planets viewable

[scuffer]

As a newbie and waiting for Saturn to rise I was just thinking how lucky I am to see Jupiter / venus /mars and saturn in one evening , but now I'm wondering how often do the planets come round so we can view them , is it annually or years apart ? Also gotta say orion nebula was best I've seen it tonight.

[Qualia]

I don't think it is such a rare event to see a number of planets on a given night. So long as they remain around 15º away from the sun, in theory they should be visible. Syzygy and transits are rare events relative to a human life span, but conjunctions happen quite regularly and for most of us the next one will probably be with Jupiter and Venus around May next year.