The Sky Today on Friday, June 26: Mercury closes in on Jupiter

Mercury and Jupiter are growing closer in the evening sky, but the former is also getting fainter and more challenging to track.
By | Published: June 26, 2026

Planetarium simulation of the western sky on June 26, 2026, 45 minutes after sunset. Venus shines brightly at upper left, with Jupiter, Mercury, and the twin stars Castor and Pollux visible lower on the horizon in the warm twilight glow.
Mercury has pulled closer to Jupiter in the evening sky by June 26, but the former has also faded in brightness. See if you can catch it shortly after sunset, and compare its size and illumination to the brighter planets nearby. Credit: Stellarium

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. 

June 25: Iapetus passes north of Saturn

Let’s check in on Mercury’s progress. The tiny planet has been moving closer to Jupiter in the west, although Mercury’s brightness has been fading day by day. This evening, Mercury shines at magnitude 1.4, standing just under 4° west of Jupiter, to the brighter planet’s lower right. 

You may need binoculars or a telescope to spot Mercury, which is now just 4° high 45 minutes after sunset. Through a telescope, the rocky world appears 18% lit and spans 10”. Compare that to Jupiter, which appears fully illuminated and 32” across. You can also take in Venus to the pair’s upper left, now near the eastern border of Cancer. Venus is some 71% lit and 16” in apparent width.

Sunrise: 5:33 A.M.
Sunset: 8:33 P.M.
Moonrise: 6:11 P.M.
Moonset: 2:38 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (93%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.

Mars now lies in Taurus, visible in the early-morning sky before sunrise on June 27. Today, the Red Planet is less than 5° from the famous Pleiades star cluster (M45). If you happen to be up roughly an hour and a half before sunrise, you can try to catch them, low in the eastern sky. 

A simulated predawn sky looking east on June 27, 2026, 90 minutes before sunrise. Mars glows as a bright orange-red point just below and to the right of the Pleiades star cluster, which sparkles with its distinctive grouping of blue-white stars. Uranus is labeled as a faint dot below Mars, and the sky fades from deep blue to a subtle twilight glow near the horizon.
The Red Planet rises along with the Pleiades in the early-morning sky. You can view them together in the east about 90 minutes before sunrise. Uranus is also in this region of the sky, albeit low enough that it will likely require optical aid to spot. Credit: Stellarium

By 4 A.M. local daylight time, Mars has reached an altitude of about 8°. Glowing at magnitude 1.3, it’s a relatively bright point of light low in the east. To its upper left is the Pleiades, a young open cluster of stars and one of the most recognizable naked-eye deep-sky objects, even among beginners. Together with Mars, the Pleiades will slowly rise higher in the east as time passes, but the sky will also grow lighter, washing them out as sunrise approaches. 

The Moon passes 0.4° south of Antares in Scorpius at 11 A.M. EDT, while neither is visible. By this evening, our satellite has moved from Scorpius into Ophiuchus, lying near the border of these two constellations.

Alison Klesman is senior editor of Astronomy magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.

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