Venus has a super close conjunction with Neptune this week. This is a good time to look at them in a telescope.

And a beast who appears in fables going back thousands of years somehow never got a constellation until somewhat recently. There's a unicorn on the celestial dome now.

Most of the planet watching is in the evening this week.

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passes by Mars in our sky.

Learn about how someone discovered that the sun emits radio waves and why that was kept a secret for a few years.

Saturn sinks toward sunset. Venus climbs toward Jupiter. And a comet crosses the sky.

The brightest star in Canis Minor (the little dog) has some things in common with the brightest star in Canis Major (the big dog).

This week is the anniversary of Clyde Tombaugh taking the pictures that led to the discovery of Pluto.

Venus climbs Capricornus for a close call with Saturn. Jupiter's at perihelion. Mars moves eastward again. The moon occults Zubenelgenubi and has its closest perigee in five years. Mercury moves to the morning. Pluto's in conjunction with the sun.

Venus climbs Capricornus toward Saturn, Jupiter reigns above them, Mars turns around, Mercury is coming out of inferior conjunction and moving to the morning.

Two planets are at perihelion this week. Some people have a hard time believing it about one of them.

Mercury says so long to the evening sky.

Venus climbs toward Saturn.

And the moon occults Mars again.

Mars at equinox. Martian clouds. The asteroid belt isn't nearly as dense as shown on TV. Planets don't twinkle--usually.

Mercury's at greatest elongation and near Venus. Jupiter and Saturn are easy evening sights. So is Mars. Earth's at solstice.

These are the longest days of the year as measured by high noon to high noon.

Mercury and Venus trek across the northern part of Sagittarius as they barely make it into the evening sky.

The moon goes farther north and south each month as it approaches a so-called major lunar standstill.

The Geminid meteor shower peaks this week. The first astronomers who saw this shower described it as not very active, but things have changed.