Venus And Jupiter Will Appear On Collision Course In Monday Morning Sky

Early Monday morning, low on the horizon line, two planets will appear as though they are perfectly on track to collide. Venus and Jupiter will be sitting very close to one another in the pre-dawn sky as they have in previous years.

The planets will reach “conjunction” at 1:05 a.m. EST Monday morning. Then a few hours later they’ll begin to rise, but if you want to see them you’ll have to catch them before the sun rises and they’re washed out by the light from the sun.

While the planets will appear as though they’re on track to collide, they won’t. Venus is 144 million miles away and Jupiter is over four times as far away from Earth than that, according to NASA. The two merely appear to be physically close to one another even though there is more than two million miles of space between them.

The technical term for this phenomenon is “conjunction” which simply means that two planets or celestial bodies are close to having the same east to west longitude in the sky. This happens several times throughout the year and can be easier or more difficult to see depending on where you are and which planets are reaching conjunction.

How to see Venus and Jupiter paired up:

It’ll be easiest to see these two planets about 45 minutes before the sun rises Monday morning. You can check the exact time that the planets will rise where you are online at the United States Navy Observatory’s website. They planets will be along the east-southeast horizon line very low in the sky, according to NASA. While you’re looking at the two either with binoculars or with a telescope or without either, be sure to protect your eyes. The sun will be rising over the horizon around the same time, but even when observing planets you should never take a peek at the sun.

Later in November there will be another conjunction, this time of Mercury and Saturn. Those planets will appear to come within three degrees of one another. On Dec. 6 you’ll be able to see the two paired up again and then Saturn and Venus will appear close on the 15 of the month.

The following weekend, one of November’s meteor showers will occur. Luckily they fall on the new moon, so it will be more dark than usual but the Leonids are not a particularly populated meteor shower so you may have a hard time catching any of the stars. There will only be about 10 per hour or so. These will peak around 3 a.m. EST on Friday the 17.