Overview

• Venus and Jupiter drew to within 0.9° in the pre-dawn sky on August 12, marking the closest visible pairing of the multi-week planet parade.
• Skywatchers across the Northern Hemisphere documented the conjunction with naked-eye views and widespread photography about an hour before sunrise.
• The close pairing coincided with the Perseid meteor shower’s peak, though bright moonlight reduced the number of visible meteors.
• Mercury joined the parade on August 12 and is climbing higher each morning toward its greatest elongation on August 19, remaining visible through August 26.
• Saturn is brightening en route to its September opposition, while Uranus and Neptune linger low on the horizon and require binoculars or a telescope for detection.