The planet show in the western sky is approaching its climax, and one day before the closest approach of Venus to Jupiter, we were favored with clear skies.  This configuration of the two is in some ways the most interesting because for our latitude and longitude, they are almost exactly the same height above the horizon, making a narrower, brighter pair in contrast to Castor and Pollux.  This wide angle view shows the relationship of Venus and Jupiter to the broader springtime sky from Leo at upper left to Lynx at upper right and Hydra to the left.  Unannotated image.