Venus has been overhauling Jupiter. The two brightest planets will be at conjunction on June 9.
Here is the after-sunset scene nearest to the time of the conjunction for an American location.
Venus-Jupiter conjunctions occur almost every year. The topic is explained, with tables of dates, in pages 82-87 of our book Venus: a Longer View.
To compare the 2026 conjunction with the previous and next:
2025 Aug 12 Venus 0.86° S of Jupiter; 36° from Sun in morning sky
2026 Jun 9 Venus 1.6° N of Jupiter; 37° from Sun in evening sky
2027 Aug 25 Venus 0.53° N of Jupiter; 4° from Sun in evening sky
2026 has the advantage of being in the evening sky, and much farther out from the Sun than in 2027. It is not such a close “double star” as either of the others.
The two planets are at the time shining at -4.0 and -1.9 on the logarithmic magnitude scale, which mean that in combination they are like a star of magnitude -4.15.
In this space view, the dashed line is the vernal equinox direction, longitude 0. The viewpoint is 6 AU (astronomical unit, the Sun-Earth distance, about 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles)from the Sun, and at latitude 15° north of the ecliptic plane. The Sun is exaggerated 5 times in size, the inner planets 300 times, Jupiter 50 times. The paths of the planes are shown in June; and the sight-lines from Earth to Venus and Jupiter at June 9.
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