Jupiter and Venus put on a spectacular performance as they met in the twilight sky on June 9 during a close planetary conjunction as Mercury lurked nearby — and we’ve got the photos to prove it!
The planetary trio have been locked in a mesmerizing slow dance in the western sunset sky over the past few weeks, forming a spectacular line-up before breaking ranks in dramatic fashion, as Venus beat a slow but inexorable path towards Jupiter.
The cosmic dance came to a climax on June 9, as Jupiter and Venus reached conjunction while shining less than 2 degrees from one another amongst the stars of the constellation Gemini.
Read on to see spectacular images of the close planetary approach, as captured by the global astrophotography community.
June 2026 Venus-Jupiter conjunction in photos
Astrophotographer Josh Dury snapped a gorgeous view of Venus and Jupiter meeting in the skies above the prehistoric Avebury stone circles in Wiltshire, U.K., on June 8, as the bright stars Castor and Pollux glowed off to their right.
“These two stones almost appear to mirror the angle of the planets,” Dury noted in an email to Space.com. “Almost like a couple gazing up to the wonders of the universe.”
Our next view was captured by Cheng Xin as the planetary duo shone brightly in the skies over the city of Shenzhen in the Guangdong Province of China — close enough to fit comfortably in the field of view of a pair of 10×50 binoculars.
Photographer Riste Spiroski took this image of the planets shining above the rooftops of Skopje, the capital city of the Republic of North Macedonia. Tiny dots extending from Jupiter’s disk hint at the presence of its four Galilean moons.
“While Venus and Jupiter are separated by hundreds of millions of kilometres in space, tonight they appeared close together from our perspective on Earth, creating one of the year’s most beautiful celestial sights,” Spirosky told Space.com in an email. “I was particularly drawn to the contrast between the couple focused on their phone and the rare astronomical event above them, this contrast inspired the story behind this series.”
Yasser Al-Zayyat took this photo of Jupiter and Venus sitting above the Kuwait City skyline on June 9, as skyscrapers cast artificial light into the twilight realm at the climax of the planetary conjunction.
Our final image comes courtesy of Osama Fathi, who captured the distant worlds shining over the volcanic mountains of Egypt’s Black Desert on June 6, as Venus drew closer to Jupiter in the twilight sky using a Nikon Z6 camera paired with aNikon Nikkor 24 mm lens.
“The terrestrial foreground was captured during the twilight ‘blue hour,’ while the star-studded sky was built by stacking multiple short exposures to reveal the faint background stars without blowing out the bright planets,” Fathi told Space.com in an email.
Want to capture gorgeous images of the post-sunset realm for yourself? Then be sure to read our beginner’s guide to photographing the night sky, along with our roundups of the best lenses and cameras for astrophotography available in 2026.
Editor’s Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.