Venus Will Soon Disappear from the Night Sky

Venus, or the Evening Star, as it is popularly known, will disappear from the night sky near the end of the month, depriving us of the brightest celestial body. Now it reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset, but it will go below the horizon in less than three weeks.

Being the brightest object in the night sky after the Moon (more than 13 times brighter than Sirius), it reaches a maximum apparent magnitude of -4.6 and it is still easy to spot at its greatest height in the evening twilight, to the left of the moon.

The planet will begin setting about four to five minutes earlier each night, meaning that it will be dropping gradually and noticeably, becoming less visible into the glow of evening twilight for the rest of July.

At the beginning of August, it will be completely gone from the evening sky. Then, a three-week period of intermission will follow, during which it will sweep between the Sun and the Earth. The fourth week, the Evening Star will become the Morning star, rising in the east about 45 minutes before sunrise.

It will finally be out of sight in mid-August, after continuously diminishing its brightness, until it will no longer be visible. It takes Venus 584 days to overtake the Earth, and this is why it goes from being the 'Evening star', visible after sunset, to being the 'Morning star', visible before sunrise.

The planet's movement in orbit makes it display phases similar to those of the Moon, becoming only a crescent when it is at its maximum elongations from the Sun.

Venus, known since prehistoric times, had an important influence on human civilizations from the earliest time, being not only the personification of womanhood and goddess of love but also an important reference point in navigation.