August 6, 2025: Before sunrise, brilliant Venus overtakes bright Jupiter leading to a close conjunction in the eastern sky. Saturn, Mercury, and the moon also join the morning and evening displays. Don’t miss this rare planetary performance!
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:50 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 8:02 p.m. CDT. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
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Venus Summary Article
Impending Venus-Jupiter Conjunction
Before sunrise, three planets are easy to see. Brilliant Venus and bright Jupiter are in the east-northeast during morning twilight.
Step outside an hour before daybreak. The brilliant star, one-fifth of the way from the east-northeast horizon to overhead, is Venus. It overtakes Jupiter, the other bright star, 5.7° to the lower left, on the 12th.
Venus and Jupiter move eastward in front of Gemini. Jupiter is over 12° to the upper right of Castor and Pollux, the Twins.
Venus overtakes Jupiter on the morning of the 12th, passing 0.9°, nearly two full-moon diameters, to the lower right of the Jovian Giant.
Future Venus-Jupiter Conjunctions
Venus-Jupiter conjunctions occur nearly every calendar year. This table displays the conjunction’s visibilities through 2030.
| Date | Location in Sky | Gap | Visibility |
| June 6, 2026 | WNW, evening | 1.6° | Easy to see, over 15° in altitude. Pollux 5.3° to V’s upper right. |
| August 25, 2027 | WNW, evening | 0.5° | Not easily visible. V-J only 2° above horizon at sunset |
| November 9-10, 2028 | ESE, morning | 0.8° | In Americas close on Nov 9th and 10th. The conjunction is nearly 20° above the horizon. Venus is 8.2° above Spica. |
| September 7, 2029 | WSW, evening | 1.8° | V-J are less than 10° above horizon. V-J-Spica fit into a circle 4.0° across. |
| November 20, 2030 | WSW, evening | 0.4° | Not easily visible. V only 3° above the horizon at sunset. Poor visibility like 2027 conjunction. |
Saturn in South-Southwest
Saturn is the third bright planet in this morning’s sky. During morning twilight, it is about halfway up in the south-southwest, retrograding in front of Pisces. It is above Deneb Kaitos, Cetus’ tail, and Fomalhaut, the mouth of the Southern Fish.
Upcoming Six-Planet Display
Mercury is rapidly moving into the morning sky after its inferior conjunction, between Earth and the sun. Around mid-month, it is visible during brighter twilight. It joins Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn in a morning display of six planets, though they are not visible simultaneously.
Neptune is visible before morning twilight begins in the same binocular field with Saturn. Uranus is in the same field of view with the Pleiades star cluster and seen through twilight’s early phases.
Moon and Teapot
After sundown, the bright moon, 94% illuminated, is in the south-southeast to the lower left of Sagittarius’ brightest stars that resemble a teapot.
Earlier this evening, the lunar orb occulted or eclipsed the star Tau Sagittarii (τ Sgr on the chart) for sky watchers in the Middle East and central Africa.
This month’s bright moon is known as the Sturgeon Moon. It reaches the Full moon phase on the 9th at 2:55 a.m. Central Time.
Mars
An hour after sunset, Mars is low in the western sky, to the upper left of the star Zavijava, also known as Beta Virginis. The Red Planet marches eastward in front of Virgo, though it slips into brighter twilight. A binocular is needed to see it.
Spica, Virgo’s brightest star, is less than 25° to Mars’ upper left and about 15° up in the west-southwest.
As Mars departs the sky, Saturn rises in the eastern sky less than 10 minutes after the Red Planet sets. In two evenings, Mars sets as Saturn rises, a Saturn-Mars opposition. Such events after sunset indicate that the two planets will be visible simultaneously in the evening sky. This does not occur until later in the month, though a binocular is needed for Mars.
Continue to watch Venus close in on Jupiter in the morning before sunrise as their conjunction nears.
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