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Venus , a planet named after the Roman goddess of love , will fittingly be at its brilliant best on Valentine ’s Day ( Feb. 14 ) this yr .
presently dominate supreme in the post - sunset nighttime sky , Venusis live up to its nickname as the " evening star . " Although it ’s always the smart major planet in the dark sky when visible — second only tothe sunand moon in smartness — it reaches a magnitude of -4.9 , its greatest brilliance , in mid - February . The planet wo n’t appear this bright in the eve sky again until September 2026 , according toEarthSky .
Venus will be at its brightest in mid-February.
Venus reached its high point in the evening sky on Jan. 10 and will sink into the sun ’s brilliance on March 22 , with its brightest evening appearance come halfway between those two extremum .
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The visibility and brightness of Venus are the result of where it revolve the sun in thesolar system . As the 2d satellite from the sun , Venus always sits national to Earth and thus has phases standardized to the moon ’s , as seen from our planet . As Venus gets penny-pinching to Earth — as it is doing right now — it shrinks to a crescent . Despite being just 27 % illuminated on Feb. 14 , its close proximity to Earth at the prison term will give us our brightest view of the major planet all year . By March 1 , Venus will be just 14 % lit — so now is a keen sentence to see Venus through abackyard telescopeor brace ofgood skywatching binoculars .
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Venus ' singular brightness occurs not only because it ’s getting confining to Earth . It ’s also relatively big ( only a few hundred miles small than Earth in diam ) , and itscloud bed are extremely reflective .
savour the convenient post - sunset views of Venus this Valentine ’s Day , because from then on , the planet ’s luminousness will wane as it shrinks to an ever - slimmer crescent . derive March , Venus will be knavish to see in the post - sunset sky . After passing through the sun ’s glare in late March , the planet will emerge into the predawn sky and reach its corking morning sky blaze on April 27 .
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