Sky watchers willing to haul themselves out of bed early on Monday morning will be treated to the sight of a cosmic "kiss" between two planets, as Venus and Jupiter pass each other in a close cosmic alignment.
The two planets will seem so close as to be difficult to separate with the naked eye, while a small telescope or binoculars will yield the rare treat of two planets visible in one field of view, experts say.
The proximity of the two solar system objects is of course, deceptive, as Jupiter is in reality almost four times the distance from observers on Earth than Venus is.
Jupiter is going to appear bigger in diameter despite its greater distance, since its actual diameter is almost 12 times that of Venus.
However, when it comes to apparent brightness, Venus will win that contest, outshining the gas behemoth by more than two magnitudes of brightness thanks to its location much closer to the sun.
The two members of the solar system have been approaching each other in the sky throughout the week, and will be at their closest -- less than one-third of a degree of angle apart -- about a half hour before sunrise Monday.
They are moving in opposite directions: Venus has been sinking toward the rising sun as Jupiter is slowly rising away from it.
It has been 14 years since the two planets have appeared so close together.
Looking almost like a double star, the two planets perform their "pairing up" about once years on the average, although the meetings -- known as a conjunction -- can vary considerably in terms of visibility and the closeness of separation.
Although they will be close to each other in the sky, each a similar bright dot, the two planets couldn't be more different in reality.
Jupiter, the largest of the solar system's planets, is a gas giant consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium, almost 87,000 miles across with a mass two and a half times that of all the other planets put together.
Venus, by comparison, is a dense, rocky planet similar to the Earth in terms of its size and gravity.
Jupiter sits at the center of a huge family of cosmic companions; the gas giant has 63 moons. Venus, in contrast, has no moon.
After the two "morning stars" are the closest on Monday, they will appear to move away from each other rather rapidly, given the opposite directions of their apparent movement across the night skies.
