The brightest stars in today's night sky - Venus& Jupiter

Have you seen the evening & early night sky lately. You will find 2 stars shining brightly very close to one another. My brother pointed it out to me. They are not stars but the planets Venus and Jupiter coming very very close to each other.

Just look to the west shortly after sunset. The brightest objects visible above the horizon will be Venus , the other Jupiter. They will fade away after the moon keeps rising. They will continue to be visible in the same part of the sky for few more weeks. But will move away from each other slowly and revolve around the sun. Will once again come close on August 4th & October nearer to the sun & horizon. This is visible with naked eyes. This event though occurs often will not be again seen until the year 2023.

I took photos of them.


There’s a third conjunction of these two in October in the morning sky with Mars nearby.

July 18, 2015 - the crescent moon, Venus and Jupiter will all fit within a circle sporting a diameter of less than four degrees. (Four degrees of sky approximates two finger-widths at an arms length.)

Don’t miss out on this close-knit celestial grouping on July 18, featuring the moon, Venus and Jupiter – the brightest, second-brightest and third-brightest orbs of nighttime, respectively.

 

I didn't know about it. Thank you for telling us! I will look today

 

I was out mowing as dusk was falling due to a lowered heat index at that time yesterday. I saw it, but wasn't sure what it was! Thanks for the info!

 

Yesterday was supposed to be the best visual of the Star of Bethlehem.... When Venus and Jupiter come that close that is what legend... says that it represents the "Star of Bethlehem". We couldn't see it last night, it was very stormy with high cloud cover. We are hoping tonight to be able to see it! Thank you 12ss12 for your fantastic photograph of them!!

 

12ss12, Thank you so much for that great information - and the photograph! Our night skies are so full of wonderful sights, yet we so often forget to look...your - and others - reminders are so welcome!

Here in the US our night skies can be quite washed out due to light pollution....but still beautiful. I hear that New Zealand has some of the brightest and most stars on the planet in their light-pollution free skies. It must be a wonder to behold!!

 

Mount Cook across Lake Tekapo, and the night sky....

These pictures are from the Night sky at Lake Tekapo
photopage , so I have no reason to doubt their authenticity.
The last two are the Aurora Australis​

 

We have had constant cloud cover for more than a week so I'm hoping to have at least one night clear to be able to see this before it's gone.

 

Such beautiful, beautiful pictures, David.....Thank you!!

 

Thank you friends for you enthusiasm. It is always happy when others recognize and join our interest. I was late from work yesterday and so I missed them. today I will catch them

David - Pictures are very beautiful. Can you really see them with such colours ?

We saw them on that day too. They are visible from our window. We now and then look out and see them fading away. So nice. Hope to have the glimpse of them with crescent moon on 18th July.

Hope clouds clear away and give everyone a glimpse of them and for light-pollution - try seeing them at the dusk before the lights are turned off/ or much better I hope you get a power cut for 5 mins

 

That's awesome 12ss12, photos of the planets are my favorite, sadly I can't see them from my current location, but please try to get a photo for the crescent moon with the two planets, I like to see that.

@davidb1yth007 , that is an amazing photo, in my country (Jordan) there is but only one location in the south called Wadi Rum, were you can see the sky like this, it is a big valley with high mountains surrounded by desert, and isolated from civilization, it is well known for the tourist, they came from around the world to watch the stars, even the last time the comet Halley were passing near our planet, it was the perfect spot to watch there and it happened twice within 2 months interval while it was on it's trip around the sun and coming back, and many star gazers came to see it, the only thing it was far for me, around 500 kilometers distance and needs camping, which was difficult for me at the time.

 

I have read about aurora borealis(northern lights) and seen photos & videos but not Australis. From you I have come to know that there is Southern Lights(Aurora Australis) counterpart to northern light. Did some surfing and learnt about it.

Thanks David

Hi abubadi ! I couldn't see the moon or the planets today. Sky was cloudy with rain clouds, today & I have been watching from 6 in the evening. Now its 8.30 p.m. Now Heat convention rain is drizzling here.

May be some one who can see it may post a snap here. Its will be visible in countries which are closer to north pole, like N.America.
Its visible on the western side. In countries like Indonesia which are on eastern side, they say it wil be visible tomorrow. I will try tomorrow and see whether India joins Indonesia.


So as a compensation we will look at this rare painting of Northern Light & Jupiter's Northern light.

Frederic Edwin Church's 1865 painting "Aurora Borealis"

Jupiter aurora