When it appears in the evening sky, it is the Evening Star. In the morning, it is the Morning Star
Throughout the upcoming summer, planet Venus will brighten our mornings. It will rise 2 to 3 hours before sunrise above the eastern horizon as an exceptionally prominent object. After the Sun and the Moon, Venus is the third brightest object in the sky.
“This is because Venus is a planet only slightly smaller than Earth, and it can approach us as close as 38 million kilometers. Venus orbits the Sun on a slightly elliptical path inside Earth’s orbit and can never be seen more than 46 degrees away from the Sun in the sky. During its orbit inside Earth’s orbit, we don’t see the entire illuminated disk of Venus — only the part facing the Sun. So we see Venus from Earth in various phases, much like the Moon,” explained Ján Svoreň from the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS).
To observe the phases of Venus, most people need to use at least a small telescope. Under excellent viewing conditions, there is a chance that people with exceptionally sharp eyesight can even see the phases of Venus with the naked eye.
There is also an interesting historical anecdote related to the phases of Venus. “In 1610, when Galileo Galilei pointed his newly made telescope at Venus, he saw the planet in the shape of a crescent. He called his mother to look at this surprising sight, and she asked why the crescent in the telescope appeared upside down. Galileo’s telescope inverted the image — but his mother had such good eyesight that she could see Venus as a crescent even without a telescope,” added the astronomer.
Edited by Monika Tináková
Source of information: Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Ján Svoreň, DrSc., Astronomical Institute of SAS, +421 908 801 691
Foto: Martin Benko, AsÚ SAV, v. v. i.