July 2026: What’s in the sky this month? Venus and Jupiter are visible in the evening, plus a conjunction of Mars and Uranus before dawn

A conjunction of Venus and Regulus easily catches the eye to the right of center in this 2020 photo. A similar conjunction occurs this month, with their positions swapped. Credit: Alan Dyer

Venus and Jupiter remain visible in the evening sky soon after sunset early in July, although Jupiter fairly quickly drops out of sight. In the morning sky there’s lots of planetary action: Saturn rises earlier now, placing it in a dark sky for a couple of hours. Neptune joins it in Pisces. There’s a wonderful conjunction between Mars and Uranus on July 4. If you’ve never seen Uranus before, this conjunction makes it easy. Finally, Mercury rounds the Sun and reappears in the morning sky in the last few days of the month. Let’s dive into some details.

Jupiter lingers briefly above the western horizon at magnitude –1.8 soon after sunset. Catch it quickly because it drops out of view within an hour of sunset by July 5. On that evening, Jupiter stands 5° high 30 minutes after sunset. After that it becomes increasingly more difficult to follow as it heads toward solar conjunction, which occurs July 29.