Venus still graces our evening skies, but not for long. It is the brightest object in the skies except for the sun and moon. To find it, look to the west and about one-third of the way up from the horizon after sunset. To unaided eyes, Venus appears as a very bright star, but with binoculars it begins to appear as a crescent.
Venus’ orbit is inside the Earth’s, and it is moving between the Earth and the sun, getting larger and becoming a thin crescent. One arc-minute at its largest, it will be visible as a crescent in a pair of binoculars mounted on a tripod. By late March we will not be able to be seen it in the evening skies.
To see the many wonders of the night sky, visit the Insperity Observatory on public night, the first Friday of each month from sunset to 10 p.m.: humbleisd.net/observatory.
