Holidays kick off stunning planetary close encounter in the sky

Just in time for Canada Day holidays sky-watchers will get treated to a stunningly close encounter between two of the brightest planets in the evening sky.

Just after sunset on both June 30 and July 1, our neighbouring worlds, Venus and Jupiter will appear to pair up very close together in the sky and dazzle us - appearing like a super bright double star at dusk. Known as a conjunction - when two celestial objects assemble close together in the sky - the two bright planets will appear less than half a degree apart - a spacing that is equal to only the width of your pinky finger at arm’s length.

However if you have been looking up, you may have noticed this sky show has been a few weeks in the making as both Venus and Jupiter have both been dominating the late spring and early summer evening skies as they have been steadily converging from night to night. They have been hard to miss because they are the brightest objects in the sky after the Sun and Moon.

Their proximity to each other of course is an optical illusion as both Venus and Jupiter are not only separated by hundreds of millions of miles from each other, but also from Earth too.  Venus sits a respectable 56 millions of miles away while Jupiter is over a whopping 550 million miles distant.

It’s also amazing to think that while both appear like bright naked-eye star-like objects, we can see them only because sunlight bounces off their surfaces. In both cases, these planets are eternally shrouded in highly reflective clouds.

Venus is a near twin in size to Earth, however it suffers from a runaway greenhouse effect where temperatures at its surface can climb as high as 460 degrees Celsius and sulphuric acid rains down from the sky.  Meantime Jupiter, the largest of all the planets in the solar system is a gas giant, with a diameter twelve times larger than Earth. In fact, it’s so large that over 1,300 Earths could easily fit inside.

To catch this special conjunction, its best to find a location that has a clear line of sight towards the western horizon. Both worlds are easy naked-eye targets, shining brightly about 30 minutes after sunset and remain visible for another hour or so before they follow the sun and sink below the horizon. Their closest encounter will be on the evenings of June 30 and July 1, after which the two worlds will appear to pull away from each other as they sink below the horizon by the end of the month

Because of the planets tight formation, skywatchers with binoculars and even the smallest of backyard telescopes can see both planets simultaneously in the same field of view.

Binoculars will reveal the four largest moons of Jupiter, pinpoint of light lined up beside the planet like a row of ducks.   Meantime, higher magnifications via telescopes will show off the gas giant’s dark cloud belts and even its Great Red Spot - a monster hurricane that could swallow Earth three times over.   Close up views of Venus through a telescope will reveal that its disk looks very much like a miniature version of a crescent moon. That’s because of the relative position of the goddess of love to our planet and the sun.

Space buffs are lucky as Earth happens to be in the right position to have three such encounters between Jupiter and Venus in just over a span of a year.  Mid-August last year saw a similar conjunction and the third and final one will occur before dawn on October 26.

Yet while these type of planetary meetings in the sky are not all too rare, they do hold some historical importance.  In fact just such an encounter between Venus and Jupiter some experts suggest may have accounted for the famed Star of Bethelehem. Back in 3 BC there was a series of eye-catching conjunctions that would have been visible throughout the Middle East.

While these spectacular celestial meet ups don’t have any effect on our planet’s own wanderings through the cosmos and have limited scientific interest, they obviously draw everyone’s attention.  And while each of these planet’s on their one may have been overlooks by most people, both so close together for a few short days can not be ignored.