Venus

[groucho]

Not a thread about some stunning siren.

Was that Venus, next to the moon this morning in the western sky?

[chim666]

groucho said:

Not a thread about some stunning siren.

Was that Venus, next to the moon this morning in the western sky?

Jupiter

You might have seen Venus over to the East.

Heavens Above

Edited by chim666 on Friday 2nd November 19:41

[Dodsy]

If you have an iphone get the nightsky app. Just point the phone at the sky it tells you what tou are looking at

[groucho]

Sounds good.

Dodsy said:

If you have an iphone get the nightsky app. Just point the phone at the sky it tells you what tou are looking at

[Vieste]

I have that it's pretty cool.

[Eric Mc]

groucho said:

Not a thread about some stunning siren.

Was that Venus, next to the moon this morning in the western sky?

From earth, Venus never seems to strays too far from the sun - because it is between us and the sun.

[Einion Yrth]

Dodsy said:

If you have an iphone get the nightsky app. Just point the phone at the sky it tells you what tou are looking at

Or, if you have a proper phone, google sky does the same job.

[groucho]

Eric Mc said:

From earth, Venus never seems to strays too far from the sun - because it is between us and the sun.

Not Venus then.

[Eric Mc]

Correct - it's not Venus.

With a pair of binoculars you can easily see the moons orbiting the planet.

[Hooli]

Einion Yrth said:

Dodsy said:

If you have an iphone get the nightsky app. Just point the phone at the sky it tells you what tou are looking at

Or, if you have a proper phone, google sky does the same job.

Ahh I'll get that then only heard recommendations for ijunk products before

[aw51 121565]

Eric Mc said:

From earth, Venus never seems to strays too far from the sun - because it is between us and the sun.

Its orbit is nearer the sun (67 million miles, from memory ) than the Earth's orbit (93 million miles). It can still be on the opposite side of the Sun to us though - and this is when it is at its most brilliant around sunset and sunrise .

If it's on the same side of the Sun as us, though, its dark side is facing us to varying degrees, making it less visible to us - the better the alignment when it's on our side of the Sun, the less visible it is .

I know there are semantic errors here; it's the old "try to KISS" thing I will use for an excuse .

[groucho]

So, what was it? Jupiter or Venus, or something else?

[Eric Mc]

Jupiter.

The fact that Venus can be quite a bit away from us when on the far side of the sun is a bit of a red herring regarding the point I was making regarding how it appears TO US.

If you want to find Venus in the sky, it will ALWAYS be relatively close to the sun from our point of view. It is rotating around the sun between us and the sun, therefore it seems to swing from one side of the sun to the other over the course of its year - which equates to around 225 earth days.

For half of that period, it wil be to the left of the sun and for the other half it will be to the right of the sun. There are periods when it is not visible to us because it is lost in the sun's glare. Indeed, this year, it passed directly in front of the sun from our viewpoint giving us a transit of Venus, the last one for 105 years.



At the moment, Venus is to the right of the sun. Therefore, it rises ahead of the sun and is visible as a very bright object in the eastern sky. It is currently rising around three hours before the sun does - so you have to get up early to see it properly (between 3.45 am and 7.15 am).
The time gap between venus and the sun rising continues to get bigger until Venus reaches the furthest western point of its orbit. In fact, looking at an astronomical chart, it reached that furthest point on August 15, 2012. It is now slowly heading back towards the sun and will pass behind the sun on March 28, 2013. After that point it will eventaully appear to the east of the sun and will follow the sun down every evening. In the summer, Venus should become a brilliant evening "star".

So, the bright object you can see in the eastern sky at the moment is most definitely NOT Venus. It is definitely Jupiter. I even had a look at it the other night through binoculars and its four moons were clearly visible. Venus doesn't have any moon.

[chim666]

Eric Mc said:

Jupiter.

The fact that Venus can be quite a bit away from us when on the far side of the sun is a bit of a red herring regarding the point I was making regarding how it appears TO US.

If you want to find Venus in the sky, it will ALWAYS be relatively close to the sun from our point of view. It is rotating around the sun between us and the sun, therefore it seems to swing from one side of the sun to the other over the course of its year - which equates to around 225 earth days.

For half of that period, it wil be to the left of the sun and for the other half it will be to the right of the sun. There are periods when it is not visible to us because it is lost in the sun's glare. Indeed, this year, it passed directly in front of the sun from our viewpoint giving us a transit of Venus, the last one for 105 years.



At the moment, Venus is to the right of the sun. Therefore, it rises ahead of the sun and is visible as a very bright object in the eastern sky. It is currently rising around three hours before the sun does - so you have to get up early to see it properly (between 3.45 am and 7.15 am).
The time gap between venus and the sun rising continues to get bigger until Venus reaches the furthest western point of its orbit. In fact, looking at an astronomical chart, it reached that furthest point on August 15, 2012. It is now slowly heading back towards the sun and will pass behind the sun on March 28, 2013. After that point it will eventaully appear to the east of the sun and will follow the sun down every evening. In the summer, Venus should become a brilliant evening "star".

So, the bright object you can see in the eastern sky at the moment is most definitely NOT Venus. It is definitely Jupiter. I even had a look at it the other night through binoculars and its four moons were clearly visible. Venus doesn't have any moon.

A good explanation

[Eric Mc]

Thank you

The OP should read some of Patrick Moore's books on astronomy. I still find that his basic explanations of how things work in the Solar System are the easiest to understand.
He has/had a great gift for explaining complicated planetary movements in a straightforward way.