Venus – Jupiter Conjunction In Evening Sky… If Clouds Clear Enough To See Them

Star gazers will have a reason to look up at the evening sky for the next three nights, that is if the clouds allow you to see past them.

Two of the brightest objects in the sky next to the moon and sun will be right next to each other.

The planets Venus and Jupiter have been inching closer together for the past couple weeks, and are now very close to each other as far as our vantage point is concerned.

In reality they are about 400 million miles away from each other.

When two celestial objects get this close together, it’s called a conjunction.

The planets all orbit the Sun in almost the same plane, which means they all closely follow a common line across the sky called the ecliptic.

because of the difference in speeds each planet moves around the sun, they pass each other periodically throughout the year.

There will be 6 planetary conjunctions this year, but this one will be the most extravagant due to the brightness of each planet.

They will appear closest together tomorrow night, March 1, 2023, which will be less than the width of the moon apart from each other.

Tonight and Thursday night they will be about as spaced out as the width of a couple fingers if you were to hold them at arms length up to the sky.

The planets will be visible in the west sky just after the sun sets and the sky starts to darken, and can be seen for about an hour before they start to fall below
the western horizon.

If the next three nights are too cloudy to view the planets, they will remain relatively close to each other for the next week, so at some point you will have a chance to see them.