How to Find Venus in the Sky
Written by Fraser Cain
Since Venus orbits closer to the Sun than the Earth, it will always be relatively close to the Sun from our perspective. It will either appear in the sky in the West, after the Sun has gone down in the evening. Or rise before the Sun in the East in the morning. That's why they call Venus the morning star.
To find Venus with your own eyes, you need to know when it's going to be relatively high in the sky. When it's as far away from the Sun from our point of view. This happens a few times a year, but that time is always changing. We'll try and let you know good times to see Venus here on Universe Today, so subscribe to the site and stay tuned.
If you have some kind of planetarium software, like Starry Nights, you can find out future times when Venus is going to be bright in the sky.
Finding Venus is very easy. When it's in the sky, it's the brightest thing around (except for the Moon and the Sun). In fact, Venus gets so bright it can even cast shadows if the Moon isn't around to wash out the light.
Even when Venus is too close to the Sun to see at night, you can still see it during the day. What? That's right, Venus is just that bright. Of course, you can't see any features of the planet's surface, since it's shrouded in clouds. With the unaided eye, you'll be able to see it as a dot, and track it across the daytime sky.
The trick, of course, is to know exactly where it is. The best way to do this is to use planetarium software to help you determine when Venus is going to be close to the Moon. Since you can see the Moon easily enough during the day, you'll be able to see Venus in reference. It helps to hide in the shadow of a building or tree while you're trying to find it.
If you have an automated telescope that can track objects on its own, you can target it at Venus, even during the day.
Filed under: Astronomy
