Categories: Astrophotos

Astrophotos: Triple Planetary Conjunction

Jupiter, Venus and Mercury in conjunction with the Stratosphere in the foreground.T aken May 24, 2013 at 8:38 PM from Las Vegas with a Canon T4i. Credit and copyright: John P. Lybrand.

Images are starting to come in of the bright planetary conjunction in the western sky at dusk! Jupiter, Venus and Mercury are snuggling up together, and we’ve got a wonderful weekend coming up with alignments including three separate conjunctions and ever-changing triangular arrangements as the nights go by. Mercury and Venus pair up on Friday; Mercury and Jupiter on Sunday and Venus and Jupiter on Monday. See our preview article for more detailed info on how to see the planetary trio each night, and there are more images below:

A view of the planetary conjunction on May 24, 2013, as see from the Middle East Technical Universty in Ankara, Turkey. Credit and copyright: M. Rasid Tugral.

Three evening planets – Jupiter, Venus and Mercury — on May 23, 2013 at about 9pm CDT, as see from Salem, Missouri. The photographer noted a fourth planet is also visible in this photo: Earth! Credit and copyright: Joe Shuster.

Mercury, Venus and Jupiter as seen near Tucson, Arizona on May 22, 2013. Credit and copyright: Robert Sparks.

Planetary conjunction of Jupiter, Mercury and Venus on May 24, 2013, seen from Japan. Credit and copyright: Jason Hill.

Three bright planets will highlight the northwestern sky this week and early next. Mercury is shown in pink and Jupiter in yellow. Stellarium

Planetary trio on May 24, 20:45 PM, from Ankara, Turkey. The photographer notes this was his first attempt to image Mercury. Credit and copyright: Yuksel Kenaroglu.

Triple planetary conjunction as see from Nashville, Tennessee on May 24, 2013. Credit and copyright: Theo Wellington.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/