{"id":478247,"date":"2026-06-15T11:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/478247\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T11:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:00:12","slug":"now-the-crescent-moon-joins-venus-and-jupiter-in-the-evening-sky-how-to-see-this-weeks-moon-and-planet-alignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/478247\/","title":{"rendered":"Now the crescent Moon joins Venus and Jupiter in the evening sky. How to see this week’s Moon and planet alignment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you enjoy last week’s close encounter between Venus and Jupiter? Perhaps you managed to see Mercury\u00a0too.<\/p>\n

This week, the Moon joins the planet parade, and some observers will even be able to see a rare daylight lunar occultation<\/a> of Venus on 17 June, when Venus will temporarily disappear behind the Moon.<\/p>\n

Venus and Jupiter were at their closest point together this year on 9 June<\/a>, and now the bodies are moving away from one another.<\/p>\n

\"Venus,Venus, Jupiter, Mercury and Gemini are visible in this beautiful image captured Roberto Ortu from Cabras, Sardinia, Italy, 6 June 2026, 22:03 local time.<\/p>\n

But while Venus’s position is improving, Jupiter’s visibility is getting worse over time.<\/p>\n

Jupiter is slowly approaching the same patch of sky as the Sun, meaning by the end of June 2026 it will be difficult to see.<\/p>\n

However, before that happens, this week there’s a great chance to catch Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and a thin crescent Moon in the early evening sky.<\/p>\n

Here we’ll reveal where you need to look \u2013\u00a0and when.<\/p>\n

\"StarStar chart showing the positions of Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and the Moon, 16\/17 June 2026. Credit: Pete Lawrence
\nMonday 15 June<\/p>\n

The three planets are visible in an almost-straight line, low in the northwest immediately after sunset.<\/p>\n

Mercury is closest to the horizon, with Jupiter above and to its left, then Venus above and to Jupiter’s left.<\/p>\n

You’ll need a clear, flat horizon to see them and you should only look once the Sun has properly set, to avoid accidentally catching a glimpse of the Sun with your naked eye.<\/p>\n

Tuesday 16 June <\/p>\n

On\u00a0Tuesday 16 June, look to the northwest again and you’ll see a meeting between a very thin\u00a0crescent Moon and the planet Mercury.<\/p>\n

Both are visible low in the northwest and you’ll need a clear, flat horizon to see them.<\/p>\n

Because the Moon is so thin and Mercury is so dim, you may need to use Venus and Jupiter to help you find them.<\/p>\n

You can do this by using our chart above as a guide.<\/p>\n

\"ChartChart showing the location of Mercury in the evening sky, 17 June 2026. Credit: Pete Lawrence
\nWednesday 17 June<\/p>\n

On the evening of Wednesday 17 June, Venus and the crescent Moon are close together in the early evening sky.<\/p>\n

As darkness falls, look out for the slightly thicker lunar crescent just south of Venus. From Europe, this will be a close meeting of Venus and the crescent Moon.<\/p>\n

From much of North America, Brazil and Venezuela \u2013 among other countries \u2013 this meeting between Venus and the Moon on 17 June will be a lunar occultation, when the Moon will pass in front of Venus, temporarily blocking the planet from view.<\/p>\n

However, the lunar occultation will occur during daytime for those observers, meaning extra care should be taken, as the Sun will still be above the horizon.<\/p>\n

If you observe Venus, Jupiter and the Moon this week, send us your observations and images!<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you enjoy last week’s close encounter between Venus and Jupiter? Perhaps you managed to see Mercury\u00a0too. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-478247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}