Facing Venus-Jupiter Close Conjunction, by Laurent Laveder (France): Winner of the people and space special prize. This picture was taken on the wet sand at low tide on the beach at Tréguennec in North West France and shows the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. One of the astronomical highlights of 2012, the conjunction was the period when the two bright planets appeared conspicuously close together in the sky. Their apparent closeness was an optical illusion – Jupiter was in fact millions of kilometres further away than Venus. The photographer is pictured in the lower right corner of the frame and the Pleiades and Taurus are also visible on the upper left
© Laurent Laveder
