Venus and Mercury at Sunset
Inner planets
Venus and
Mercury can never
wander far from the Sun in Earth's sky.
This week you've probably seen them both gathered near the
western horizon just
after sunset, a close conjunction of bright
celestial beacons in the fading twilight.
The pair are framed in this early evening skyview captured on
January 13 from the ruins of
Szarvasko Castle in northwestern Hungary.
Above the silhouette of the landscape's prominent volcanic hill
Venus is much the brighter, separated from Mercury by little more
than the width of two Full Moons.
On Friday, planet Earth's
early morning risers will also be
treated to a close conjunction,
when Saturn meets an old crescent Moon
near the southeastern horizon at dawn.