Venus and Jupiter to make 'double planet' visible in Irish skies

Eva Osborne

Venus will pass extremely close to Jupiter as they both shine extremely bright next week.

Astronomer and editor of Astronomy Ireland magazine, David Moore, said the two planets will be blazing at their closest in Irish skies from sunset on Tuesday.

"This is called a conjunction and no other conjunction can be this bright as these are the two brightest planets there are," he said.

"It will be an incredible sight to the naked eye, the highlight of the year, and indeed for many years.

"The planets Venus and Jupiter look like very bright 'stars' to the naked eye and nothing is brighter than them so when they are so close on Tuesday that you can cover both of them with one finger held up at arm's length, you just don't get a more impressive sight that."