Venus getting closer

Press, 29 July 1978, Page 20

Venus getting closer

The brilliant planet Venus will continue to attract a great deal of interest throughout August. It climbs steadily higher in the evening sky, passing close to the very much fainter Mars on August 15. Venus reaches its greatest elongation east of the Sun on August 30. The following evening it can be found close to the bright star, Spica, in Virgo. It will be interesting to watch the changing phases of Venus over the next few months, noting that it also increases in apparent size and in brightness. At the beginning of August it will appear gibbous but by the end of the month it will be at the half-lit phase.

Thereafter it will steadily become more crescent-shaped reaching a narrow crescent phase by the end of October. By then its apparent diameter will have doubled and it •will be somewhat brighter. The reason for both the change in apparent diame-

ter and brightness is that the distance between Venus and the Earth rapidly decreases over the next three months.

The remaining bright planets will not be in favourable viewing positions during August. Mercury, while visible low in the sky at sunset at the beginning of August, rapidly draws close to the Sun. It reaches inferior conjunction on August 19 and then passes into the morning sky, but remains close to the Sun. Mars, now too distant to be worth viewing, is low in the north-west in the early evenings. It can be found extremely close to the Moon at 6 p.m. on August 8. The Mobn will then be four days old. Binoculars will be necessary to pick out Mars against the glare of evening twilight. Jupiter will begin to emerge into the morning ski, but can only be seen during morning twilight. Saturn is now close to the Sun and reaches conjunction with the Sun on August 28.