Venus and Mars: Double Planet Treat in the Dawn Sky

Venus and Mars will double upo in the eastern sky this month and the next.
From Space.com:

During May, June and on into early July, watchers of the predawn sky will notice an interesting "double planet" low in the east: brilliant Venus closely accompanied by reddish 1st-magnitude Mars.

The scene has already started playing out. On May 1, Mars was positioned 5 degrees to the lower left of Venus, the two rising roughly 90 minutes before the sun. (Your fist on an outstretched arm covers about 10 degrees of sky.) The two planets have been slowly separating ever since, becoming as much as 6.6 degrees apart May 16.

Now they'll come back together.

Mars will appear to reverse it course relative to Venus and will start approaching it. And for 32 consecutive mornings -- June 2 through July 4 -- they will be within 5 degrees of each other. On the morning of June 21 they will appear closest together with Mars just 2 degrees above and to Venus's left.

Here's wishing for clear skies.