On 18 August 2014 there was a planetary conjunction in the morning sky when the planets Venus and Jupiter appeared next to each other with the distance separating them considerably less than the size of the full moon. Jupiter was rising a bit higher each morning while Venus was dropping closer to the horizon. For several days before and after the conjunction the two planets so close together made a spectacular image in the morning sky.

For three days I shot photos of Venus and Jupiter. I then took the images from each day and created a layered image. Next, I shifted each image up/down, left/right until the planet Jupiter lined up. The result was that the composite contains a single image of Jupiter along with three images of Venus. This makes it easy to see how the two planets were shifting relative to each other over the course of three days.

The previous conjunction of Jupiter and Venus was 26 May 2013 and was, in fact, a triple conjunction and included Mercury. The next conjunction of Jupiter and Venus will occur on 01 July 2015.

The photos were taken from Mars Hill where Lowell Observatory is located and look over the city of Flagstaff, Arizona, the worlds first International Dark Sky City.