Venus–Jupiter Conjunction

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Venus and Jupiter appear just 0.5° apart in the sky on August 25, 2027, reaching their closest approach at approximately 05:00 PM Phoenix time. A planetary conjunction is a beautiful celestial alignment where two planets appear very close together in the night sky, though in reality they are hundreds of millions of miles apart. The effect is purely a line-of-sight coincidence as seen from Earth. Conjunctions are best viewed shortly after sunset or before sunrise when the sky is dark but the planets are still above the horizon. How to watch: No telescope needed for bright planets — the naked eye is enough to appreciate the pairing. Binoculars will reveal both planets in a single field of view, and a telescope will show their disks and features side by side. Venus: Venus is the brightest planet in the sky — often mistaken for a star. It appears as a brilliant white point of light, visible in the west after sunset or east before sunrise depending on the time of year. Jupiter: Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Its four largest moons — the Galilean moons — are visible through even a basic pair of binoculars.