Two Brightest Planets Visible Together in Morning Sky This Week

The two brightest planets in the sky will be visible together just before dawn this week, coming the closest on Wednesday morning.

Venus and Jupiter will be visible together about 45 minutes before sunrise low on the east-northeast horizon, according to Joe Rao, the skywatching columnist for Space.com.

Sunrise is at 5:55 a.m. on Wednesday, 5:56 a.m. on Thursday and 5:57 a.m. on Friday. The forecast calls for Wednesday morning to be clear, Thursday morning will be mostly clear and some clouds may be in the sky on Friday morning.

The two planets were closest on Monday morning, but that was not visible in Salem - or anywhere in North America.

The appearance of the two planets together in the sky is relatively rare. The next time Venus and Jupiter will be seen together will be in the evening sky just before Independence Day 2016. It will happen six more times between now and 2020.