A rendevous in the night sky: Venus, Jupiter to meet on June 9

Chennai: A stunning celestial display awaits skywatchers on June 9 as Jupiter and Venus are set to appear unusually close in the evening sky.

The two brightest planets will seem around just 1.6° apart in a conjunction, though hundreds of millions of kilometres apart. They have been approaching each other for weeks.

In other words, the moon is 0.5° wide, and the two planets would appear roughly three full moons apart from each other. According to Sky & Telescope, the official magazine of the American Astronomical Society, the distance between the two planets will be a little more than the width of a pinkie finger held at arm’s length.

Experts said the planets would be visible to the naked eye, though binoculars or a telescope would offer a better view. All they have to do is look towards the west-northwest direction around 45 minutes after sunset.

“Venus is on eastern elongation — moving east of the Sun till Aug. So it will grow brighter till Aug, but you may not be able to see the full round disc of the planet. Jupiter is far away from the Earth, so it will look a little dim,” said Soundararaja Perumal, former executive director, Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre. “But, you can see both the planets with naked eyes.”

The planets’ apparent proximity is a line-of-sight illusion as Venus would be at 80-85 million kilometres from Earth and Jupiter about 900 million kilometres away.

Perumal said conjunctions involving Venus and Jupiter occur infrequently, and not all are easily visible from Earth. The last one took place in Aug 2025. The next rendezvous between the two planets will take place on Aug 25, 2027, but it may be difficult to view as they will be too close to the Sun. The next opportunity to see them clearly will be on Nov 10, 2028. “Generally, conjunctions do not have a periodicity as all planets move at different speeds,” he said.

Experts said other planets will also be in the vicinity. Mercury will be visible in the northwestern sky, though it may be harder to spot because it appears lower in the twilight sky and reflects less sunlight than Venus.

The visibility of Mars and Saturn may be average, while Neptune and Uranus may be extremely difficult to see without optical aid.