Venus – Page 9 – Astronomy Now

Venus and Mars get close in the evening sky

13 February 2015 Ade Ashford

Observers with a clear western horizon from the middle to the third week of February can enjoy the closing gap between planets Mars and Venus in the early evening sky.

Japanese craft to get second chance after missing Venus in 2010

9 February 2015 Stephen Clark

Five years after a balky valve kept it from entering orbit around Venus, Japan’s Akatsuki space probe is again approaching the sweltering planet for another shot at completing its science mission in December.

See a 1-day-old Moon challenge

21 January 2015 Ade Ashford

What’s the youngest Moon you’ve ever seen? While the best opportunities generally occur in Northern Hemisphere spring when the ecliptic’s high, 21st January offers UK observers a 28-hour-old lunar crescent.

Elusive Mercury and dazzling Venus together as evening stars

2 January 2015 Mark Armstrong

Inner planets Mercury and Venus are currently approaching conjunction, low to the southwest horizon shortly after sunset. If you have an extra clear sky, then Mars completes the scene.

Europe’s Venus Express mission is at its end

19 December 2014 Stephen Clark

The European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft has run out of fuel and will burn up in the atmosphere of Venus in January after a successful eight-year mission.

Seeing the sights on Venus: Baader ultraviolet filter

2 October 2014 Steve Ringwood

If there is one thing you learn from the outset about Venus, it is that it is permanently shrouded in a blanket of cloud, but this filter will bring out some detail.

Venus buzzes Regulus in the dawn sky

3 September 2014 Astronomy Now

Venus has a close encounter with first magnitude star Regulus, constellation Leo’s luminary, in the dawn twilight on the mornings of 5 and 6 September.