Re: Venus Is Visible Before Dawn

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.advocacy.]
On 2025-06-07, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

(Hey, with all the religio/ideo/political crap in both these groups, why
not have some *non*-religio/ideo/political crap ;)).
>
I was up about an hour or so before dawn a few days ago, and noticed a
very bright object high in the sky. I was back in bed before I realized it
was the planet Venus.
>
Venus looks like nothing else in the sky. To my eyes, it’s noticeably
something more than a mere point of light, like everything else in the
night sky (except the Moon, of course). It looks bigger, and you can
almost notice that it isn’t perfectly round, because it shows phases (like
the Moon, but only properly visible through a telescope) when it’s on the
same side of the Sun as the Earth. Its colour is noticeably a bit off-
white.
>
I remember reading in a book somewhere that, at the extremes of its orbit
(relative to the Earth’s), it might be visible up to three hours before
sunrise (as a “morning star”, as it is right now), or up to three hours
after sunset (as an “evening star”, when it’s on the other side of its
orbit relative to us). A quick peek forward in time with KStars indicates
that it is slowly moving back closer (from our viewpoint) to the Sun,
though I think we have a couple months left before it disappears from
view.
>
I tried looking for it again a day or two ago, but was stymied by a solid
blanket of winter fog. Takes effort to get up that early. ;)
>
Anyway, give it a try, to see if you have better luck in your particular
corner of our planet. ;)

A friend told me about this just last week.  Usually I'm pretty up to
date with the positions of the planets, but lately, not so much and I'm
not a morning person.

Venus can indeed by quite bright, and can look like an oncoming plane at
first, except it doesn't appear to move.

I will take a look one morning, when it is clear.  Through the
telescope, Venus shows phases like the phases of the moon, but its
apparent size does vary greatly, appearing largest when a crescent (as
that is when it is closest to the Earth), and shrinking as it becomes
full (as that is when it is moving away, to opposition.

When Venus's brightness is at a peak, if you are in a very dark area,
either before twilight begins, or after dusk ends, with no Moon, you may
see Venus cast a shadow.  I have seen it myself when out camping once.
You have to look closely.  For me, I saw it cast by small objects such
as small plants on a sandy area.