BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Brad Klein reviews upcoming astronomical highlights with Bethlehem’s "Backyard Astronomy Guy," Marty McGuire.
This week, the planet Venus has finished her long running role as "evening star" and now becomes the highlight of the pre-dawn morning sky.
The so-called "morning star" is brightly visible for the remainder of spring, and easy to spot in the eastern sky just before sunrise.
It is the brightest object in the night sky after the moon, and it’s not really a star at all. The planet Venus can be either the evening star, or the morning star, depending on where it is in its orbit around the sun.
How did it change from evening star to morning star? Its orbit is smaller and faster than Earth’s, and you can think of Venus as if it were “passing on the inside lane of a track for track and field,” according to McGuire.
As seen from Earth it has moved from one side of the sun to the other, on the "inside track" between Mercury and Earth.