PICTURE OF THE WEEK: Venus, the morning star
On Monday morning I woke up early and went to look out of a bedroom window (at about 6.11am) and could see the waning crescent moon (right), it was still before sunrise so although it was daylight, the moon was easy to see.
I also noticed a bright object below and to the right of the moon.
When it is daylight you can’t see the fainter stars but you can see the brighter stars and the nearer planets.
The bright object turned out to be the planet Venus (in parts of the year called the morning star and at other times of the year the evening star and at other times of the year it is not visible because it is behind or near the sun.
The reason that Venus can be so visible in daylight is that it is the nearest planet to us on earth, a very similar size and it has an opaque atmosphere with a highly reflected outer layer, unlike the other inner planets (Mercury: no atmosphere but dark volcanic lava surface, Mars: hardly any atmosphere and red-ish, rusty surface which gives it its other
name; the red planet).
The moon is visible as a waning, crescent moon as it nears the end of its 29-and-a-quarter day lunar cycle when it becomes a barely visible (illuminated only by reflected earthlight) new moon tomorrow (Friday,
September 17) and shortly after that it will be seen as a waxing (increasing in sunlit area), crescent moon progressing towards a brightest full moon in the middle of the next lunar cycle.
Harry Atkinson, Wokingham