Venus, Mars and Regulus unite on July 9

Trio Venus, Mars and Regulus

Venus is the brightest point of light in the night sky. In early July, it will set in the west less than two hours after sunset. When you look towards the fading colors of sunset, Venus will be the first light you see. The closest planet to Earth shines with magnitude -4.7 in the first half of the month. On July 9, 2023, if you wait for the sky to darken further, you’ll see two points of light quite close together and on bright Venus. The slightly brighter and whiter light is regulusthe brightest star Lion The lion. And next to it is reddish Mars. These two worlds appear slightly more than the width of a moon apart on both July 9 and 10.

The view in binoculars

To get a better look at this trio, try focusing on them with a pair of binoculars. Through binoculars, you may be able to see the waxing phase of Venus. Next, look for the white and red light points together in the same field of view. These are Regulus and Mars, respectively.

Mars should be a constant light, but Regulus could scintillation. That’s because Mars is closer to Earth. A star, like Regulus, is quite far away, it is nothing more than a point of light in our sky. So Earth’s rippling atmosphere through which we peer can cause the tip of Regulus to jump, while the more disk-like Mars remains stable.

Our charts are primarily set up for the northern half of the Earth. To see an accurate view from your location, try Stellarium online.

If you get a great photo of this event, send it to us! Submit your photo to EarthSky Community Photos.

Bottom line: You can see Venus, Mars, and Regulus together on July 9 and 10. Use binoculars to get a better view of fainter objects, separated a little more than the width of the moon.

For more videos of big night sky events, visit EarthSky YouTube page.

For more night sky events visit EarthSky Visible Planets and Night Sky Guide.

Read more: Brighter Venus now in the night sky by 2023