Venus and Saturn will appear extraordinarily close together in the night sky tonight during a celestial event known as a conjunction.
To see Venus and Saturn, look to the southwest immediately as the sun sets. Venus will be bright an unmistakable, shining at its best as an “evening star” throughout the month. Saturn, nearby, will become visible to the naked eye as dusk fades to darkness and remain observable for around three-and-a-half hours past sunset, at which point the pair will sink below the horizon and out of view. The two planets will pass within about two degrees of each other tonight (your clenched fist held at arm’s length covers about 10 degrees of sky).
Two days after their close approach tonight, also known as an appulse, the two planets will enter a celestial arrangement that astronomers call a conjunction. This means that when viewed from Earth the two bodies share the same right ascension, which is the astronomical equivalent of longitude in the sky. The conjunction of Venus and Saturn will occur on Monday, Jan. 20 at 12:16 a.m. (0516 GMT), according to In-the-Sky.org.
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Venus will shine brightly with a magnitude of -4.5, while Saturn will have an apparent magnitude of 1.0 (lower and/or negative numbers indicate brighter objects in the sky). While the planets will be bright enough to be seen by the naked eye under clear, dark skies, a pair of binoculars or telescope can help viewers see the pair more clearly. Despite their close approach, the two planets will be too widely separated to fit within the field of view of a telescope, but viewing each planet individually through a telescope could help bring out details such as Saturn’s rings.
Both Venus and Saturn will be in the Aquarius constellation, the water bearer, during their close approach. To help spot it, viewers should look towards the south in the evening sky, using the bright star Fomalhaut in the nearby Piscis Austrinus constellation as a guide to locate Aquarius.
Above Fomalhaut — one of the brightest stars in the night sky — viewers can look for the fainter stars that form a Y-shaped configuration representing Aquarius’ water jar.
Saturn and venus will still appear close for a few nights following their conjunction, though more widely separated. The alignment between Venus and Saturn is just one act of January’s “planet parade,” in which viewers can also expect to see other showrunners like Mars and Jupiter.
The four bright planets will appear to line up in the night sky shortly after sunset. Venus and Saturn will be in the southwest while Jupiter lies high overhead and Mars in the east. Uranus and Neptune can also be seen during the planetary lineup, but a telescope will be required to spot them since they are not as bright.
For more skywatching events this month, don’t miss our night sky, January 2025 guide and our night sky for tonight blog, updated each weekday with what you can see throughout the week.
If you’re looking for binoculars or a telescope to observe the planets, our guides for the best binoculars and the best telescopes have options that can help. Be sure to also check out our guides for tips on how to photograph the planets.
Editor’s Note: If you snap a good photo of Venus and Saturn during conjunction, or of the planet parade this month, and would like to share it with Space.com’s readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.