Venus-Jupiter Conjunction Visible on July 1

By JAIMIE CURA (Patch Staff)

If you loved seeing the beautiful sight of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent moon grouped together earlier this month, you’re going to want to look at the skies again.

Shortly after sunset on June 30 and July 1, Venus and Jupiter are getting quite close to each other — less than one-half degree apart.

EarthSky writes:

“That’s less than the moon’s diameter on our sky’s dome. Venus is currently about to pass between the sun and Earth. It will sweep some 8 degrees south of the sun on August 15. Meanwhile, Earth passed between Jupiter and the sun in February 2015. So Jupiter and Venus are nowhere near each other in space. And yet, as we look outward from Earth, we see these two planets aligned on nearly the same line of sight.”

The planets appear so brightly in the sky because their cloud cover reflects sunlight, according to EarthSky.

If you take any photographs of the June-July appearance of Venus and Jupiter, send them to jaimie.cura@patch.com.

Save the Dates

We’ve listed the remaining meteor showers for the year from all locations, as people may be traveling to other states in the summer.

• July 18: Venus in near-conjunction with Regulus, plus a Venus-Moon-Jupiter celestial grouping
• July 28-29, 2015 Delta Aquarids
• August 12-13, 2015 Perseids
• October 8, 2015 Draconids
• October 21-22, 2015 Orionids
• November 4-5, 2015 South Taurids
• November 12-13, 2015 North Taurids
• November 17-18, 2015 Leonids
• December 13-14, 2015 Geminids

Photo by tonynetone, via flickr creative commons