Jupiter and Venus Reach Close Conjunction in June 2026, Creating Spectacular Celestial Display

The Venus-Jupiter conjunction of June 8–9, 2026 brought the two brightest planets in the night sky within approximately 1.6 degrees of each other in the constellation Gemini, creating a widely photographed celestial spectacle visible from every inhabited continent. Astrophotographers captured the pairing above landmarks ranging from the ancient Avebury stone circles in the UK and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to the skylines of Kuwait City, Skopje, and Shenzhen. In Lucknow, India, the Indira Gandhi Planetarium set up telescopes and astrophotography stations, drawing around 2,500 visitors who also observed Jupiter's four Galilean moons — Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Mercury was also faintly visible lower on the horizon throughout the event, and the waning crescent moon posed no significant interference with viewing. According to NASA, Mercury will formally join Venus and Jupiter in a 'planet parade' visible in the western sky from June 11 through June 15, with the best viewing window being 30 to 45 minutes after local sunset. Observers with telescopes could also see Venus as a gibbous disk at roughly 80 percent illumination and Mercury at approximately a half-moon phase. A similarly close Venus-Jupiter conjunction is not expected until November 10, 2028, when the planets will be separated by about 0.8 degrees.