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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

Venus, Jupiter, and Noctilucent Clouds

Explanation: Have you seen the passing planets yet? Today the planets Jupiter and Venus pass within half a degree of each other as seen from Earth . This conjunction , visible all over the world, is quite easy to see -- just look to the west shortly after sunset. The brightest objects visible above the horizon will be Venus and Jupiter , with Venus being the brighter of the two. Featured above , the closing planets were captured two nights ago in a sunset sky graced also by high-level noctilucent clouds . In the foreground, the astrophotographer's sister takes in the vista from a bank of the Sec Reservoir in the Czech Republic . She reported this as the first time she has seen noctilucent clouds . Jupiter and Venus will appear even closer together tonight and will continue to be visible in the same part of the sky until mid-August.

Tonight: See Venus & Jupiter together after sunset

Date July 1, 2015
Credit Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horlek
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.