Venus and Jupiter – the sky’s 2 brightest planets – are shining together in the west after sunset. They’ll be closest on June 8 and 9. But June overall offers your best opportunity to see them together. This video shows you where to look, when to look, and what you’ll see as these 2 bright planets undergo their spectacular conjunction. EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd is host. Submit your Venus-Jupiter photo to EarthSky’s community page! Watch the video in the player above, or on YouTube.
See the Venus-Jupiter conjunction
An amazing whole-Earth event is coming to the evening twilight sky. The brightest planet visible from Earth, Venus, and giant Jupiter (2nd-brightest planet) are about to meet. Start watching now, and see them draw closest around June 8 and 9.
Just look west after sunset. Venus will pop into view first. Jupiter – only slightly fainter than Venus – will appear next. Right now, Jupiter is higher than Venus. But that’s about to change. Watch every night as evening twilight fades, and as the planets creep closer together day by day.
Then wow! By early June, the planets will be really close! And when June 8 and 9 arrive – their evenings of closest approach – these two blazing worlds in our evening sky will be only about 1.5 degrees apart. Your pinky held at arm’s length should just fit between them. Don’t miss this!
In early June, as seen from Earth’s Northern or Southern Hemisphere, the planetary pair will set more than two hours after sunset. But don’t wait. Watch for them as soon as you can after sunset.
Here’s the view over many weeks, from Wyoming
EarthSky’s Marcy Curran and her husband Martin have been capturing images of Venus and Jupiter with an all-sky camera since early April, at their WyoAstro Observatory near Cheyenne, Wyoming. Thank you, Marcy and Martin!
Star charts for the Venus-Jupiter conjunction
Venus-Jupiter conjunction: What else to watch for
While watching for the Venus-Jupiter pairing, you might also notice a second, fainter pair of objects nearby. They aren’t planets. They’re distant stars.
They are the two brightest stars in the constellation Gemini the Twins. The brighter one is called Pollux, and its fainter “brother” is called Castor. They’re not nearly as bright as Venus and Jupiter. But they’ll mimic the “doubleness” of the two planets. So they’ll be noticeable if your sky is dark enough.
And lower down, closer to the horizon, you might spot another planet, elusive Mercury. It should be fairly bright, but not nearly as bright as Venus and Jupiter.
Optical aid will enhance the view
You definitely won’t need binoculars or a telescope to see Venus and Jupiter. They’ll outshine all the stars!
But ordinary binoculars will give you an enhanced view. When closest, Venus and Jupiter will easily fit into your binoculars’ field of view. Look for a subtle color difference, with Venus piercing white and Jupiter slightly creamier or yellowish.
With a tripod or steady hand (or by leaning against a wall or fence), your binoculars might show you one or two of Jupiter’s four largest moons. These are the famous Galilean satellites (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto). They’ll look like tiny pinpricks of light, in a line bisecting the planet.
Meanwhile, a telescope will reveal more. Venus is currently in a gibbous phase, between half and fully lit. Didn’t know Venus shows phases? It does!
Brightest vs. biggest
Jupiter and Venus look roughly the same size in our sky. But, if you could see them side by side in space, you would find Jupiter about 12 times wider than Venus. Also, you could fit over 1,000 Venuses inside Jupiter. So why does Venus look brighter to us?
For one, Venus is much closer to us than Jupiter. Right now the two planets might look close together in our sky, but in reality, they are quite far apart. Venus is currently about 111 million miles (180 million km) from Earth. And Jupiter is much farther away at 560 million miles (900 million km) from Earth.
And here’s reason number two why Venus looks brighter. It’s covered with thick clouds that are good at reflecting sunlight. Venus reflects about 70% of the sunlight that strikes it. Meanwhile, Jupiter reflects about 52% of the sunlight that strikes it.
Read more: Why is Venus so bright in our Earth’s sky?
A video of images when the moon passed Jupiter and Venus in May
Between May 18–20, skywatchers around the world captured a beautiful sight in the night sky as the moon appeared near Venus and later close to Jupiter. This video is a collection of images shared from different countries, showing how people across the globe experienced the same celestial event from their own perspective. Venus and Jupiter — the brightest planets in the sky — will move closer together in the coming weeks, leading up to an impressive conjunction around June 8–9.
Keep watching after the conjunction
The closest conjunction of Venus and Jupiter is on June 8 and 9, but keep watching for them later in the month, when the moon passes by the separating duo.
What to watch for after June 9
After the close June 9 conjunction, Venus will appear each evening a little farther from the sunset point than Jupiter. Its greatest elongation, or greatest apparent distance from the sun in the twilight sky, will fall on August 14-15, 2026. Afterwards, Venus will drop sunward. It’ll pass between us and the sun in October 2026, and afterwards emerge in the east before dawn.
Meanwhile, Jupiter will continue dropping steadily toward the sunset point. It’ll pass into the sun’s glare in July 2026, moving behind the sun from Earth. It’ll emerge in the east before dawn after about mid-August.
On June 16, a thin crescent moon will make a triangle with Jupiter and Mercury. And on June 17, the moon will be just a bit higher than Venus. Use binoculars to look between the moon and Venus in order to spot a pretty star cluster known as the Beehive. This cluster buzzing with stars lies in the constellation Cancer the Crab.
Bottom line: Get ready for a spectacular Venus-Jupiter conjunction! You can already start watching the planets as they get closer in the evening sky after sunset. The big event happens on June 8 and 9, 2026.
Read more: New evidence of lava tube on Venus found in old radar data
Read more: Lightning on Jupiter is 100 times more powerful than Earth’s
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