A thin crescent moon appears close to the planet Venus Thursday evening. The two appear together a short time after sunset, just above the western horizon. Both are in the zodiacal constellation Gemini, a constellation we associate with winter.

The scene is pretty as the two celestial objects hang together in the evening twilight and will remain visible for more than an hour.

Take a look towards the eastern sky at about the same time and you may see the bright planet Jupiter just coming up in the east. Jupiter continues to rise as the evening unfolds. Jupiter is also close, as close as it gets this year. Opposition was earlier this week, on Tuesday. The planet is about 410 million miles away.

The solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter is regal rising in the east.

Jupiter is not as bright as Venus setting in the west, but Jupiter has staying power, staying visible in our night sky, all night. For comparison, Venus is 120 million miles away.