Thanks for posting. Haven't had much in the way of clear skies here of late, but maybe we'll get lucky.

Look to the west. I have a little Celestron 127eq I received as a gift and those two planets have been a regular target. I can see Venus' phases and four or five of Jupiter's moons and one of his stripes.

Once I get the dang tracking motor working, I won't have to fiddle with the right ascension knob all the time.

but last night I noticed Jupiter was easily visible in the murk even before complete darkness, and it was very close to a bright star -- the only one visible in the sky up to that point. I thought "Venus? Can they really be that close together?". Sure enough, there's no mistaking the third and fourth brightest objects in the sky.

Venus to Hug Jupiter in Crazy-Close Conjunction
Jun 29, 2015 01:56 PM ET // by Ian O'Neill


[font size=1]
A conjunction of Venus and Jupiter (and the moon on the horizon) brighten the skies over the ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT)
observatory at Paranal in northern Chile in 2009.

ESO
[/font]
For the next few nights, be sure to make a special effort to go outside at twilight and look West — if you live in the Northern Hemisphere and have clear skies. You see those two bright stars really (and I mean really) close to one another? Those aren’t stars, they’re two planets, Venus and Jupiter, making a wonderfully close pass in the night sky.

Top 10 Treats for Summer Astronomy

Known as a conjunction, the pair are set to come less than 1/3 of a degree apart on the evening of June 30, but for the next week you’ll be able to see the evening pairing within 3° of one another. For the past few days they have been slowly creeping up on one another, becoming the focus of skywatchers.

As noted by Sky & Telescope magazine, conjunctions between Venus and Jupiter aren’t particularly rare — indeed, the two worlds met even in our skies last August and will do again in October — but they are a stunning sight. As an added bonus, if you you’re armed with a telescope or powerful pair of binoculars, you may be able to pick out both Venus’ and Jupiter’s crescents.

EXPOSED: Taking Astronomical Pictures

So get out there and watch tonight’s celestial dance just after sunset. Weather permitting, you won’t be disappointed.

More:
http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/look-up-venus-to-hug-jupiter-in-crazy-close-conjunction-150629.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1