Have you noticed two bright objects in the west after dusk? These are the two brightest planets, Venus (to the lower right) and Jupiter. They've been getting closer the past few weeks and will have a spectacular conjunction at the end of the month (read more here). A crescent Moon joins the pair around June 20.

I haven't replied for a long time, but diligently read whenever anyone does post here. I have been following Jupiter's chase of Venus every clear evening, and, goodness, what a beautiful sight. Looking forward to the conjunction at the end of June!

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As [the fireball] blazed through the sky all I could say was "Whoa! Whoa!" One of the two guys I was with turned in time to see its end but the other did not.

I can relate with the "whoa! whoa!" exclamation! That type of celestial sight occurs so quickly and almost before one blinks, it's gone. How fortunate you just happened to be looking in the right direction, and glad the one fellow, anyway, saw a brief glimpse.

Imagine my surprise when I went out last night to see an Iridium flare and spotted aurora borealis (Northern Lights) flickering in the north part of the sky! I live in a city with lots of lights so seeing them here is unusual (it's been almost 11 years since I last saw them here in town). The trees and city lights meant they weren't terribly impressive (just faint ghostly white patches), but many observers saw a more spectacular show last night, even as far south as Kansas. Spaceweather's aurora gallery has lots of pretty pictures.

The lights may remain visible the next few nights; spaceweather.com is the place to get the latest info on seeing them.

Got out last night about 1am but unfortunatly things must already fizzled out. We were out of town so we were treated to a light show from a few hundred fireflys.

How wonderful you caught a glimpse of the Northern Lights, stargazer, especially given the city lights around. Very memorable! I tried to see them from here a few nights, to no avail.

Yesterday was very, very cloudy, which began to break up a bit towards evening. But not enough to have a clear view of Venus and Jupiter's conjunction here in our area. I did see a glimpse of it through haze, which was better than nothing, but I can only imagine what it was like in full view. However, there were two other treats: fireflies galore in the dark of the night *highfives Puddleglum* and the nearly full Moon rising in the east, with its bright glow radiating through and around the clouds. Gorgeous!

Skyandtelescope has an interesting and informative article on the convergence of these two brightest planets.

And here are some conjunction photos from all over the world.

I'm glad to see some NarniaWebbers were able to view the conjunction...especially with fireflies! I always enjoy seeing them when stargazing (except when the occasional flash overhead makes me think it's a meteor ).

It's been overcast here but I'm hoping to see them before they get too far apart.

I thought of you, jo, when I found this picture with Canada Day fireworks in the foreground.

Nice, stargazer. And that's exactly why I'm popping in to post here again because last night I walked to the end of our village (a 1 minute walk west down the road) to see the town's Canada Day fireworks from a distance. They were beautiful, even from miles away, and much less noisy (only distant *booms*, rather than earth-shattering ker-bangs, lol). But best of all, Venus and Jupiter were looking down on us from on high. If I help my hand at arm's length, my thumb covered them both. While the sky wasn't completely clear, the high clouds were light enough that they were visible, yay! However, shortly after, they were covered over, so the timing was good. And the fireflies were still out and about. Then I turned east and saw the full Moon rising up into a cloud wrack, encompassing that part of the clouds and sky with a mysterious white glow.

Haha, I know what you mean about seeing a firefly light up in your overhead peripheral vision and think it's a meteor.

I hope you get to see the two planets soon, 'gazer.

Has anyone else seen the conjunction?

/edit/ I forgot another fun factor last evening: bats were out in abundance. Of course, it was a full Moon.

I got out with The Mrs. last night to check out the conjunction, and try our hands at taking pics. Unfortunatly it was non too successfull even with a tripod.
One of the on going problems is the haze from the Canadian wild fires. We have had several days where we literally cannot see a single star, even though there is no cloud cover.

The haze from the Canadian fires has been strong here all week. Even when it's not cloudy the sky is a milky white haze by day and almost opaque by night (last night we had a view of the just-past full moon; it was deep orange and greatly dimmed from usual. Vega, nearly overhead, was the only star visible). Last Monday, the sun was a similar deep orange color and dimmed, even when it was about 30 degrees high.

The conjunction still has eluded my view for the past 8 days.

Jupiter and Venus remain fairly close in the evening sky, though both are sinking down toward the sunset. If your sky is clear tomorrow night (July 18) check out the view to the west: Jupiter, Venus, the crescent moon, and the star Regulus all fit in a 7 degree-diameter circle. Read more here.

The Perseid meteor shower reaches its annual peak tonight, perfectly timed for the dark of the night over North America. This "Old Faithful" of meteor showers can bring up to 100 per hour under ideal conditions. (Read more here.

People often independently 'discover' this event during outdoor camping trips and vacations.

I'll have less than ideal conditions, since I live in a metro area with lots of lights...not to mention mosquitoes. But the big deterrent is the clouds that are starting to roll in right now.

Sorry to hear of your clouds, stargazer. Any success last night, at all, even through breaks in the clouds? Or weren't there any spaces? Did anyone else catch a glimpse of the Perseids?

Our night dropped to 9°C/48F last night ... a very refreshing temperature in which to view the Perseids. Lying still, one gets colder faster, so I pulled on socks, a neck-protector thingy, a sweater, and mitts, plus a cozy blanket over top all. My alarm went off at 4 this morning. The outdoor recliner was ready for set-up on the front lawn, so I bundled up and thoroughly enjoyed 1 & 1/4 hours of meteor viewing. As usual, some meteors were lighter; others were heavy-duty; all were impressive. And against the backdrop of a star-studded night sky, one could hardly imagine anything better.

One meteor shot right across the Pleiades, which was very cool. The Summer Triangle was right above me (I always find it larger than life and so beautiful). Some meteors were so long and bright that they left a residual light after they, themselves, had gone. One of these, in particular, lasted for 4 seconds. A long time for something like that.

I didn't count, but would say I saw, on average, about 1 per minute this morning. Sometimes there would be longer breaks without (5 minutes, maybe); other times there would be 3 in a half minute. It really varied. Many I could just catch with my peripheral vision. Some I looked at straight on when I just happened to be looking in the right spot at the right time.

Last night I had gone to bed earlier in preparation for arising before dawn this morning, but my husband, in the few minutes he went out to look, saw three meteors and 2 fireballs. Niiiice!

As dawn approached and the sky began lightening, I went for a 3-mile walk ... a great walk to conclude the Perseid shower, 2015.

Love your descriptions, jo! It brings back memories of watching this shower a few years (okay, decades ) ago, from the edge of a small town rather than surrounded by the lights of 3.5 million people (as I am now). Some years would be crisp and cool, while others would be warm and humid with mosquitoes joining the festivities.

Our overcast has been low and complete - not to mention the soupy air (dewpoints around 70F make it 'air you can wear.'). Indeed, around 5 am this morning I did enjoy watching some spectacular lightning...but no Perseids.

Stargazing with no light pollution at the edge of a small town ... sounds about perfect!

Cool about the grand lightning, stargazer! But that that same storm caused the lack of Perseid viewing.

Skyandtelescope wrote an informative piece on stargazing for September, culminating in the Harvest Moon's lunar eclipse on Sept. 27th! There is a short (7 min) podcast at the end that is also very helpful and interesting.

Sky and Telescope also highlights a series of impressive planetary conjunctions coming up in the next 6 weeks or so, involving Mars, Jupiter, and Venus with the Moon occasionally joining in. Alas, they're in the morning sky but at least dawn is getting late enough that even night owls like me can rise to see the action.

I forced myself out of bed around 5 this morning to see the sky. Summer pre-dawn observations are rather rare for me since it comes so early. But the coming of winter changes that.

Orion was already high in the southeast, with the Moon shining high near the Pleiades. But the eastern sky stole the show, with the Dog Star Sirius scintillating low and Venus, just coming into the morning sky, hanging like a torch in the trees to the left of Sirius. Venus is usually a stark white or even bluish in color, but its low altitude and the haze and forest fire smoke gave it a slightly reddish hue (nothing like that of Mars, however). Very pretty!