About this episode
This episode discusses the close encounter between Venus and Jupiter, highlighting their visibility and significance in the night sky.
Venus and Jupiter are staging one of the top skywatching events of the year – an especially close encounter of the two brightest points of light in the night sky. It plays out in the west over the next few evenings. Venus is the beautiful “evening star” – the brightest object in the night sky after the Moon. Jupiter is the next-brightest. Even so, right now it’s only about one-seventh as bright as Venus, so it’s easy to tell them apart. The two planets can pass especially close because both of them stay near the ecliptic – the Sun’s path across the sky. They pass by each other every year or so. But both worlds wander a little bit to either side of the ecliptic, so they usually just miss each other. And even when they are close, they’re sometimes so near the Sun that we can’t see them. At times, though, Venus can pass in front of Jupiter, blocking it from view That last happened in 1818. It’ll happen again in 2065. But that’s one of those times when they’ll be too close to the Sun to see. Tonight, Jupiter is close to the upper left of Venus. But over the coming evenings, Venus will overtake it…
People in this episode
Host: Billy Henry
Topics covered
- skywatching
- astronomy
- planets
- Venus
- Jupiter
- ecliptic
Keywords
- Venus
- Jupiter
- skywatching
- astronomy
- ecliptic
- planets
- night sky
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Venus, Jupiter
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- More Venus and Jupiter · June 8, 2026 · 2 min
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