Overview
- Venus and Jupiter reached their tightest apparent separation on Tuesday, June 9, measuring about 1.6° apart low in the western sky near the bright heads of Gemini and visible for roughly one to three hours after sunset.
- Observers are advised to look about 30–60 minutes after sunset toward an unobstructed western horizon and to use binoculars or a small telescope for a richer view that can reveal Mercury, the Beehive cluster, and details of each planet's disk.
- The Guwahati Planetarium opened a weeklong evening telescope program starting June 9 with sessions from 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm, and similar institutions worldwide organized public viewing to engage families, students and skywatchers.
- The close pairing is an optical line‑of‑sight effect: Venus is far closer to Earth (about 110 million miles) and appears roughly seven times brighter than Jupiter, which lies near 560 million miles away.
- If weather or timing prevents a sighting, the two planets remain within a few degrees of each other through the week and Jupiter’s moon shadow transits offer additional telescope targets in the early evening.