Night Sky Photography -- 06-12/13-2023 -- Venus & Mars with the Constellation Cancer & The Beehive Star Cluster

Good evening, fellow stargazers!

At the end of the previous month and the beginning of this month, the small red planet, Mars, traveled past the Beehive Star Cluster as it rises higher in the sky as seen here from the surface of the Earth in its larger orbit around the Sun.

Meanwhile, the bright planet Venus, in its own closer orbit of the Sun, has reached the Beehive Cluster and the Constellation Cancer the Crab stars this week on Monday, June 12th and Tuesday, June 13th respectively.

Both of our nearest planetary neighbors are moving higher towards the bright star, Regulus, and will move closer together over the course of the month of June; both Venus and Mars finally meeting in conjunction at the beginning of July.

As I've mentioned before, the Beehive Star Cluster (also known as M-44) is a faint open cluster of hundreds of stars located an estimated 577 light-years (or 176.9 parsecs) from our Sun. The cluster is located inside the faint zodiac Constellation Cancer The Crab.

The following are the photos I took of the planets Mars and Venus in the night sky with the faint Constellation Cancer with bright Venus buzzing by the Beehive.

When Venus and Mars reach conjunction on Sunday, July 2, 2023, they will appear about 5 degrees apart in the evening sky in the west. They will continue to move closer throughout the month of July.