London - This month, two of our solar system's most sensational planets are about to get together for a tryst.
For the whole of spring in the northern hemisphere, luminous giant Jupiter has been lighting up our evening skies. But dazzling Venus - Earth's twin in size - has been sneaking up in the opposite part of the sky.
Our neighbour world, cloaked in a dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide, reflects sunlight amazingly: it is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon.
On 30 June, the two brilliant worlds tangle in a cosmic embrace. Separated by a space less than the diameter of the moon, Jupiter and Venus will make a stunning sight low in the western sky.
Otherwise, the summer constellations are making their appearance. Orange Arcturus, in Boötes, lords it over the night skies.
Next to it, the small-but-perfectly-formed Corona Borealis - the Northern Crown - is a beautiful reminder that warmer days are on the way.
DIARY: WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Tuesday 5.19 pm: full moon
6 June: Venus at greatest eastern elongation
9 June 4.42 pm: moon at last quarter
16 June 3.05 pm: new moon
24 June 12.03 pm: moon at first quarter; Mercury at greatest western elongation
30 June: Venus and Jupiter close conjunction
The Independent