Venus and Mercury at Sunset

As seen on Astronomy Picture of the Day, inner planets Venus and Mercury can never wander far from the Sun in Earth’s sky. Here they are caught paired into a conjunction of bright celestial beacons in the fading evening twilight. The pair are framed from the ruins of Szarvasko Castle in Hungary. Above the silhouette of the landscape’s prominent volcanic hill Venus is much the brighter, separated from Mercury by little more than the width of two Full Moons. © Tamas Ladanyi