Brilliant Morning Stars Venus and Jupiter gleam from the predawn eastern skies today in this 30-second image made at 4:05 a.m. in the Chicago area. Planet Venus continues its display of brightness as Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor. Notice that Orion with its bright star Betelgeuse is to the right along the horizon.
Bright planet Jupiter is higher in the sky near Aldebaran, the brightest star in Taurus, along with the Hyades star cluster. The Pleiades star cluster is higher in the sky.
Compare the positions of Venus and Jupiter against the starry background to where they were on August 12.
Watch the planetary pair in the morning sky throughout this month. Read more about Venus as a Morning Star. For our monthly sky watching posting, click here. (Click the image to see it larger.)