Have you seen a bright evening star [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in the western sky lately? That's no star, that's planet Venus the second "rock" from the Sun [
http://space.jpl.na…]. Blazing at -4.6 magnitude [
http://liftoff.msfc…MAG.HTML ], Venus, after the Sun and Moon, is the third brightest celestial body in planet Earth's sky [
http://www.skypub.c…]. Venus is closer [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] to the Sun than Earth and as Venus orbits [
http://astrosun.tn.…venus_phase.htm ] the Sun it is seen to go through phases [
http://euclid.sms.p…venus/demo1.html ] similar to the Moon. But unlike the Moon, as Venus waxes and wanes [
http://www.badastro…venus_phase.html ] its distance from Earth and hence its apparent size changes drastically. This causes Venus to look brighter [
http://www.science.…ast14jun99_1.htm ] as it looms large in its crescent phases than when it is smaller and nearly full. Taken on January 28th, this dramatic picture finds a crescent Venus near its brightest to the right of a crescent Moon. The brilliant rivals seem poised above a satellite dish of the Scripps Satellite Oceanography Facility [
http://www.sio.ucsd…siotour18.htm ]. Closer to the horizon, just below and to the right of the satellite dish, Mercury [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] pierces the twilight glow.
Explanation
Have you seen a bright evening star [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in the western sky lately? That's no star, that's planet Venus the second "rock" from the Sun [
http://space.jpl.na…]. Blazing at -4.6 magnitude [
http://liftoff.msfc…MAG.HTML ], Venus, after the Sun and Moon, is the third brightest celestial body in planet Earth's sky [
http://www.skypub.c…]. Venus is closer [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] to the Sun than Earth and as Venus orbits [
http://astrosun.tn.…venus_phase.htm ] the Sun it is seen to go through phases [
http://euclid.sms.p…venus/demo1.html ] similar to the Moon. But unlike the Moon, as Venus waxes and wanes [
http://www.badastro…venus_phase.html ] its distance from Earth and hence its apparent size changes drastically. This causes Venus to look brighter [
http://www.science.…ast14jun99_1.htm ] as it looms large in its crescent phases than when it is smaller and nearly full. Taken on January 28th, this dramatic picture finds a crescent Venus near its brightest to the right of a crescent Moon. The brilliant rivals seem poised above a satellite dish of the Scripps Satellite Oceanography Facility [
http://www.sio.ucsd…siotour18.htm ]. Closer to the horizon, just below and to the right of the satellite dish, Mercury [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] pierces the twilight glow.
Explanation
