Venus & Jupiter in Conjunction

The two brightest planets, Venus & Jupiter will reach conjunction tomorrow night (9/1/2005). This should be a beautiful sight. Look for the pair low in the southwestern sky shortly after sunset. The pair are the brightest starlike objects in the sky... with Venus by far the brighter of the two. The pair will slowly drift apart over the coming days and weeks... as Venus continues to climb nightly... while Jupiter fades fast. The picture below shows the pair on Saturday night... when they were still several degrees apart. By Thursday's closest approach, the pair will be just over 1° apart. This is roughly the width of an outstretched finger.