Both of these planets are orbiting the Sun, of course, as is the Earth. Our home planet takes 365 days (actually 365.2422 days which is why 2012 is a Leap Year). But Venus, being closer to the Sun, takes only 226 days to orbit the Sun. Thus, we are in an eternal race with the queen of the planets and are always losing; every 584 days Venus laps us. Lately, as Venus is catching up with us, we see Venus moving eastward and higher in our evening skies. Meanwhile, Jupiter, lying over five times farther from the Sun than the Earth, is lumbering along taking almost twelve years to orbit the Sun. We catch up with the giant planet every 399 days (last on October 28, 2011). As we move past Jupiter, although it is slowly moving to the east among the stars, the Earth’s motion carries it westward, i.e., downward in our evening twilight. Thus, we have Venus moving upward and Jupiter moving downward. The distance between the two is decreasing nightly until March 15 when Venus will lie a mere 3 degrees north of Jupiter. After that date they will move apart with Jupiter disappearing into the evening twilight in late April. Venus follows in late May as it approaches a rare transit between Earth and the Sun on the evening of June 5. So, watch these two “Evening Stars” while you can. Happy observing! About PARI PARI is a public not-for-profit public foundation established in 1998. Located in the Pisgah National Forest southwest of Asheville, NC, PARI offers educational programs at all levels, from K-12 through post-graduate research. For more information about PARI and its programs, visit www.pari.edu. Follow PARI on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Astronomy_PARI. “Like” PARI on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Pisgah.Astronomical.Research.Institute.