RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — If you have been watching the evening sky during the few clear nights over the past week, you have been able to see three bright objects in the western sky during the early evening hours.
The moon was the obvious one for you to see. However, the other two objects are Jupiter — the dimmer one — and Venus — the brighter one. The moon — in its orbit — has now moved away, but Jupiter and Venus continue a little bit of a celestial date.
This is called a “conjunction” if you want the fancy scientific name. But the fact of the matter is that even though it looks like they are close enough for a goodnight kiss, the two planets are over 400 million miles apart.
Over the next week or so, provided we don’t have a lot of clouds in the area — which are most likely in the forecast for the next two evenings — they will appear in the western sky early in the evening as the two brightest objects there.
They will continue to part over time, and just like most long-distance relationships, it will be a while before they meet this closely again. That won’t be until Feb. 7, 2032.
Venus will be in the evening skies for a good part of the first half of the year, and in early June should reach its highest point in the evening sky.
