Category Archives: venus

venus

A UFO? A Plane? What is It?

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It’s Not Planet X, That’s for Sure

Astronomers and planetarium folk have been getting the usual phone calls about “something bright in the West” after sunset.  It’s true. There is something bright out there… but it’s disappearing fast.  It’s the planet Venus, and it’s sinking lower into the western sky each day, and brightens up the post-sunset sky like a jewel hanging there against the dusk.

I love going out to look at Venus. It’s really quite beautiful, and it’s easy to understand why some early observers would call it a goddess. It just gleams in the sky.

Venus looks bright because it’s a cloud-covered world, and those clouds reflect sunlight. Also, it’s a bit closer to us in its orbit right now, and thus appears bigger and brighter.

Venus has a long history in science fiction of being a swamp world or a desert world.  I remember reading some early science fiction where people from Earth were eking out a living among dinosaur-type creatures.  Another book in my library, written in the late 50s, had Earthlings settling on a dry and dusty cloud-covered Venus, and ultimately launching attacks on Earth.

Those stories were WAY off the mark however. In the 1960s, we sent our first probes to Venus, and right away discovered the truth: a world with a poisonous atmosphere that is so heavy it destroyed the probes that landed on the planet. Later on, orbiters such as the Magellan mission mapped the volcanoes of Venus, showing us once and for all that our “sister planet” is not a very hospitable place.

But, or course, you don’t see that when you gaze at the orb of Venus hanging low in the western sky these May nights. That doesn’t make it less lovely to ponder as the sky darkens.   Before too long, Venus will be a morning object, right after it transits the Sun on June 5/6.  So, go check it out. Here’s a map to get you started!

Look for Venus low in the west after sunset for the next few weeks before it disappears in the glare of the Sun.

 

'Casts, Jupiter, Mars, planets, saturn, venus

Bright Lights in the Sky

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No UFOs Here

The post-sunset view on March 11, planets Venus and Jupiter. Click for a larger view.

Unless you’ve been buried under a blanket of clouds the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed some bright lights in the western sky just after sunset.  Aside from the Moon (and you know what that looks like, don’t you?), you might be wondering what they are.  Well, if they’re not moving rapidly (like changing position over the space of a few minutes, as aircraft would do), then what you’re seeing are the planets Venus and Jupiter.  Here’s tonight’s view of the pair, well after sunset. You won’t see Mercury (too close to the Sun), but you can’t fail to notice how dazzling the two planets appear these early springish nights.

If you have binoculars or a small telescope, check out Jupiter. You might be able to see its four largest moons. They’ll look like little pinpoints of light on either side of Jupiter.

Mars is just below Leo, and Saturn and Spica rise together later in the evening. Click to ensaturnate.

 

The next couple of nights, these two planets snuggle up really close together in the western sky.   Once you’ve found them, and turn toward the east and look for Mars snuggled up underneath the constellation, Leo the Lion.  An hour or two later, you should be able to find Saturn just rising in the East. It’s a planet spectacular!

Of course, there are a lot of other things to look at in the sky this month, so don’t run back inside after you’ve seen the planet.  Dress warmly (if it’s cold where you are), and explore that sky!  There’s a lot to be found.

By the way, check out “Our Night Sky” at Astrocast.TV for a short program I did on what’s up this month.  It’s free to embed on observatory and planetarium Web sites (with proper credit, of course), so check it out!