Venus and Jupiter Close to 1.6 Degrees on June 9 as Mercury Joins Rare 3-Planet Parade
Updated
Updated · Forbes · Jun 4
Venus and Jupiter Close to 1.6 Degrees on June 9 as Mercury Joins Rare 3-Planet Parade
3 articles · Updated · Forbes · Jun 4
Summary
June 9 will bring Venus and Jupiter to within 1.6 degrees in the western evening sky, close enough to appear almost touching about 45 minutes after sunset.
June 4-14 offers the broader viewing window, with the pair staying within 5 degrees of each other low on the horizon for only a couple of hours after dusk.
Mercury will sit below and to the right, creating a three-planet lineup visible to the naked eye, while binoculars or small telescopes can also reveal Jupiter’s moons and Venus’s partly lit disk.
Venus will outshine Jupiter at magnitude -4.0 versus -1.9—about seven times brighter—even though the pairing is only a line-of-sight effect, with Venus about 110 million miles from Earth and Jupiter roughly 560 million.
June 16-17 will add a 5%-11%-lit crescent moon to the scene, after which Jupiter will sink lower while Venus climbs and dominates the post-sunset sky through summer.