Overview
- Venus, which drew close to Uranus on Thursday after sunset, offered a binocular view of both planets less than 1 degree apart near the Pleiades in Taurus.
- Venus shone near magnitude minus 3.9, while Uranus near magnitude 5.8 required binoculars or a small telescope to pick out.
- The night before on Wednesday, a waxing crescent Moon appeared a few degrees above Jupiter in Gemini, with the planet’s four large moons visible in binoculars.
- The Lyrid meteor shower reached its best hours between about 2 a.m. and dawn on Thursday for viewers willing to stay out late.
- Jupiter will sink lower toward the western horizon over the coming weeks as Venus takes over the evening sky through October.